The House of Hades
by Olympusseriesisawesome
Summary: "Six half-bloods above and two below. The Doors of Death to all shall go." My version of the House of Hades. First story, please review! T just in case. Roman POVs only: no Percy or Annabeth except in dream chapters
1. Chapter 1: Hazel

**Disclaimer: I do not own PJO or HoO**

Chapter I Hazel

The entire room was still in a daze. Percy and Annabeth had fallen into Tartarus. Every so often, Hazel would hear Jason mumbling "I could have saved them!" and Frank saying pretty much the same thing. Occasionally Leo would say "I knew I shouldn't have broken that cookie! It's all my fault!" Nico looked miserable and Piper looked the same. All in all, not a very happy crew as they sat at the dining table.

"All right, cupcakes!" Coach Hedge yelled. Gods, that faun – satyr – whatever – was annoying. "There's no point moping around. What's done is done and all you can do is look forward. So everyone stop being miserable! It's not going to help Percy or Annabeth and it is not going to help us stop Gaia! Do you hear me?"

Piper glanced up. "You're right, Coach," she finally said. "So what do we do now?"

"Er… I hadn't thought of that actually! How about we eat?"

Frank stared at Coach Hedge. "Percy and Annabeth are in Tartarus and you're worried about food? Are you serious?"

"Hey, we can hope they're OK but we can't do much else. And you're all useless with nothing in your bellies, okay? Valdez, what's for dinner?"

"Um, I think we have frozen pizza and some packs of noodles in the hold. And there's some soft drinks as well if anyone wants some. And, um, I think that's it. Festus?"

_Creak-click-click-click-creak, click-click-creak_ – or something like that – was the reply.

"Yeah," said Leo. "Oh, and there's some other deep-frozen stuff as well, but it would take way too long to defrost and all that. So, uh, Coach, what do we do after we eat?"

Coach Hedge stared at Leo. "Duh, Valdez. We tell Camp Half-Blood and continue our journey to Greece. Honestly, I thought you had brains."

Leo glared at the faun – no, _satyr_ – and said "Fine. So I'll get the pizza?"

"Yeah, do, Leo," Piper said. "And hurry up. We're all starving." There was a lilt in her voice that Hazel recognised as charmspeaking. In any case, Leo sprinted out of the room so fast he turned into a blur. A few seconds later, he returned with cans of Coke for everybody except Coach Hedge and two pizzas – a pepperoni one and a mozzarella one for Piper and Coach Hedge. He plonked the Coke down on the table and put a pizza into the microwave, then lit up his hand and heated the other one. Hazel felt a stab of worry as she remembered Frank's firewood, still in her pocket.

"So the plan's to tell Camp Half-Blood about Percy and Annabeth? Wouldn't that be, like, seriously bad for morale boosting?" Piper asked through a mouthful of pizza. "Yeah, but it wouldn't be fair to not tell them." Jason said. "And we can tell them about the legion coming as well."

"Tomorrow," said Nico. Hazel felt worried about how bad his voice sounded. It sounded like the grating of a dozen of Alcyoneus' jewels – and she knew really well how _that_ was like. As everyone turned to look at him, he explained "No need to give them bad nightmares. And Cabin Fifteen – the Hypnos cabin – _will_ have nightmares about it. The legion won't arrive tomorrow. Besides, daytime is usually a better time to break bad news. Let them have one more day of – um – not knowing. We can hardly create a rainbow here anyway. Tomorrow morning"

"Uh-huh," Frank mumbled. He swallowed his pizza, then said "But wouldn't that make it evening in their time?"

"Ah, Zhang, that's no problem. They'll end up with the nightmares anyway. And besides, Nico is right. In this case, better later than sooner." Coach Hedge said.

"Yeah," said Jason wryly. "But don't make it _too _late, right, Coach?"

Coach Hedge glared at him. "Yep."

"All right, everybody," Leo announced in a loud voice. "Early night tonight. Meeting at eight in the morning on deck to send the Iris-message. Just relax, alright? I know it's hard but we're not doing them favours by worrying. Everybody, off to bed. Crew dismissed." When everybody stared at him without any sign of moving, Leo carefully produced a small fireball. "Anyone not in bed in the next two minutes will get scorched. Shoo!".

Everyone slowly shuffled off to bed. Despite what had happened earlier, Hazel felt slightly better. It was good to have a proper plan again, to not feel useless. She glanced at her brother – he'd been given cabin 13. He'd absolutely refused to take Percy's or Annabeth's cabins - and she didn't blame him - so Leo had emptied a storage cabin for him. Nico had just slung a hammock for a bed in the room. When Leo had asked what number he wanted Nico had said 13. It had taken Leo practically seconds to forge that. In any case, Nico still looked miserable. She promised herself to check on him tomorrow – private brother-sister time – and headed to bed.


	2. Chapter 2: Hazel

**So what did you think? Will private brother-sister time turn out OK? Or will this just make Nico even more miserable? **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Heroes of Olympus series**

Chapter II Hazel

Hazel was seriously starting to hate her dreams. Why couldn't they just be normal dreams for once? But no, she had to have bad dreams for the night. And with her luck, of course she dreamed about the thing she did _not_ want to think about.

She was in a pitch-black cave. After that muskeg in Alaska, she did not want to dream about pitch-black places. Even worse, she could feel something watching her, like a prickle at the back of her neck. Glancing back, she stifled a scream. The – the _thing_ was a huge pig. With wings, which just made it look even worse. It had pink skin and black hooves. From her monster classes, she guessed it was either the Clazmonian Sow – which was seriously bad news – or the Erymanthian Boar – even worse news. And Percy and Annabeth were there, too.

The pig rushed forward, almost knocking down a section of the dark roof. Percy dived for cover and Annabeth rolled away. They slashed at the pig with Annabeth's dagger and Riptide, but it barely had any effect. The pig must have iron skin. Or maybe that was just because it was Tartarus, and the pig, since it was a monster, was practically immortal there. She didn't like their chances of beating the pig.

Then the scene shifted.

She was next to Percy in a different time. She thought she recognised Central Park, in Manhattan. There were about two dozen girls in silver, demigods under an owl banner and some fauns holding back what seemed like an endless army. _Dracanae_, giants and other demigods attacked. The demigods under the banner somehow held them back. A girl with spiky black hair and electric blue eyes, with a silver circlet on her head, pointing at a golden man in armour walking on top of the reservoir. A hurricane. The fauns playing on reed pipes – she guessed this made them satyrs. The golden man turning into a maple tree.

The scene shifted again. She was still in Central Park, but this time there was no army, no owl banner. She saw a maple tree in the distance – probably the golden man in armour. This time, she was next to Reyna. The praetor was pacing up and down a room while Octavian studied what seemed like an ancient map. She moved until she was next to Octavian. The map dated from the American War of Independence, which made it _really_ old. Part of her wondered where Octavian had found it. The other part of her studied the map. Long Island was marked, and so were boundaries. There was a Greek Delta in the middle of the camp. She briefly wondered what that was supposed to be.

It was a shock when Octavian spoke. She didn't know she could hear stuff.

"The camp borders should be weakest here," he said, pointing at a spot. "If we attack at dusk, they won't be able to see us properly from the sun. Plus, they have no chance of defending against an attack they won't know is coming."

Senator Larry came in. "So when are we attacking? Next week?"

Reyna sighed. "Sooner, if possible," she said. "We want to give as little warning as possible, remember. The day after tomorrow, if we can."

Hazel woke so fast she was sitting up in bed before she was fully awake. She glanced out the window. Probably six o'clock, maybe seven. She was so confused she decided she'd go onto the deck. Somehow, the Athena Parthenos had major calming properties.

When she arrived, Nico was already there. He glanced at her as she came up. "Hey," he said, in a weary voice.

"What's up?" Hazel asked. She instantly winced inside. What a stupid question.

"Couldn't sleep," he replied. "And, honestly, I feel like I never want to sleep again. Not after that death trance."

"It'll be all right," she found herself saying. "They'll make it out alive."

"Yeah," he agreed, sighing. "Bad dreams?"

Instantly, she stiffened. How did Nico know?

"Hey," he said, "all demigods have super weird dreams. But please tell me you saw some good stuff in your dreams."

She found herself telling him everything. He winced when he heard about the pig, then groaned when she told him about Reyna. "Not good," he said. "Not good at all. So we can tell them in the Iris-message. Ok. Calm down," he muttered to himself. "And sis, this time it'll be alright."

A few minutes later, Leo popped out his head. "Up already?" he asked. "Well, let's get the bad parts and the Iris-message over with."

**Ooh, Iris-message time! Wonder what Camp Half-Blood will think when two of their leaders fall into Tartarus?**

**By the way, I'm not too sure why I added in the battle at the reservoir with Hyperion. It just felt right for a dream-vision for Hazel. Maybe it'll play a part later on. As I said, I'm not too sure.  
**


	3. Chapter 3: Hazel

**Sorry about the rather short brother-sister time with Hazel and Nico, but I just couldn't wait to get to the Iris-message to Camp Half-Blood. Maybe I'll have another little one later on in the demigods' journey. As for the Hyperion vision, I wanted one with Thalia in it and it was either that or the Iapetus one.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Heroes of Olympus series (or PJO)**

Chapter III Hazel

The demigods gathered around the water fountain Leo had literally pulled out of nowhere. He'd just whistled and the floor had split beneath his feet. The water fountain had been pushed up on something and the floor had turned back to normal again. Now the water sparkled in the morning sun, splintering sunlight into dazzling rainbows. Hazel remembered what the goddess had said on their quest, which seemed like so long ago – that Fleecy usually managed her messages. She wondered if they should say _O Fleecy, do me a solid_ instead. But apparently they were going to say the traditional way. First, though, there was a mini-argument about who was going to say what.

"Not me," said Frank. "They have no idea who I am and I'm not sure they'd want to listen to a Roman. Better they listen to one of their own."

"Me neither," said Nico. "I'd prefer it if they didn't know I was here. That could cause some suspicion."

"I'm not," she said. "They don't know me. And like Frank said, I'm sure they'd prefer listening to one of their own."

For some reason, everyone glanced at Coach Hedge, who frowned. "Don't look at me like that," he said. "I'm _not_ going to talk. I'm a satyr! I protect demigods. I don't make Iris-message calls. And besides, Grover would strangle me."

_Who's Grover? _Hazel wondered. Probably another satyr.

"Hey, I'm not doing it," said Jason. "I mean, I'm still a Roman, son of the sky god or no. I'm not talking. I'm bad at talking," he added, which was _such_ a lie. Being praetor meant you had to be able to speak well at Senate meetings, but she didn't blame him for not wanting to speak.

"How about you, Piper?" Leo asked. "I mean, you've got charmspeak and all. They'd listen more to you than to me. Nyssa said fire dudes were always bad luck. I'm _not_ going to keep that tradition going."

Piper sighed. "Fine, it all comes down to me talking. Great. Fab. Not."

She took out a huge golden coin – as big as one of those – what did they call it? Girl Slots? No, Girl Scouts. The coin was as big as a Girl Scout cookie. It had the Empire State Building on one side and a god on the other side. The god looked like one of those statues of Mercury. She guessed it was Mercury's Greek form – Hermes – since it was a Greek coin. The gold called to her, which was seriously annoying her. She had no intention of burying her friends in golden coins.

"It's called a drachma," Nico whispered into her ear.

Piper did the honours. She threw the drachma into the rainbow. "O Iris, goddess of the rainbow," she said, "accept my offering."

The coin sailed through the air. As it hit the rainbow, it vanished.

"Camp Half-Blood, campfire," Piper requested.

And the surface of the rainbow shimmered. Suddenly the demigods were looking at a pale orange campfire. The campers of Camp Half-Blood were roasting marshmallows on the fire. As she watched, a girl popped a marshmallow in her mouth. Then the campers noticed them. Or rather, they noticed everyone except Nico, who had dived below deck as soon as the rainbow shimmered, and Coach Hedge, who had gone to watch a martial-arts programme.

Instantly, the campers all shot closer to the Iris-message. About a dozen or so boys and girls sat down next to the message. A centaur trotted forward.

"Piper!" he called. "How is your quest going? Where are you? Is everything OK?"

"Um, we've just left Rome for Greece, we've defeated Ephialtes and Otis, and recovered – "

She was interrupted by a gasp from one of the campers with Annabeth's blonde hair and grey eyes. "No way," he whispered. "Did you – Is that – Is that the _Athena Parthenos_?"

A chorus of gasps rose from everybody beneath the grey olive-branch-and-owl banner. She guessed they were Annabeth's siblings. One of the girls fainted. Another boy dropped his marshmallow. A third promptly collapsed into one of the girls under the silver crescent moon banner, who seemed like she was a daughter of Athena as well, she had those same features.

The centaur stamped his hoof and the camp fell silent, everybody's eyes fixed on the message. She had to say it was pretty unnerving.

"Uh, yes, that is the Athena Parthenos," Piper said. "Recovered by Annabeth from Arachne."

At the word Arachne, several children of Athena fainted. Others turned deathly pale, as if they'd just seen their worst fear coming towards them. She somehow remembered the story of Arachne and Minerva/Athena. No wonder they looked shocked.

"Er… unfortunately…" Piper just wasn't able to say any more on the subject of Percy and Annabeth falling into Tartarus. Jason quickly said "Erm, that is, Gaia sent a minion at the Roman camp, so the entire Twelfth Legion Fulminata will be, um, heading your way. They're already at Central Park. I'm afraid Annabeth told Reyna the location in friendship, but it didn't work out that way," to fill the gap.

Hazel had told them all about her dream of the map and the legion and Jason filled in the details. "They said they'd attack at dusk or something. From that rise on the hill."

A girl pushed her way forward, and Hazel's eyes widened. This was definitely the same girl in her dream – the same electric blue eyes, the same black spiky hair. Even the silver circlet was the same. "From the rise on the hill?" she asked. "They must be mad. That's where Peleus the dragon is protecting the Golden Fleece. He'd roast them into bits. And," she added darkly. "It won't have positive effects if they try chop down the pine tree."

"Thanks for the reminder, Thalia," Jason grumbled.

"That's not all." Piper said quickly. "Percy and Annabeth… they sort of, um… fell into Tartarus."

The campfire instantly turned black. Hazel could almost feel the shock in the Greek camp. Nico had been right about the mass demoralization.

"Well," the girl – Thalia – finally said, "we'll stay here to help defend the camp. That must be why Lady Artemis sent us here. And Percy and Annabeth – " her voice choked slightly, " – they'll make it out alive. They have to. And they will."

"I know, sis," Jason murmured. "They will."

Wait. _Sis_? Jason had a sister? She decided to grill him later.

Jason's sister glanced at the campers surrounding her. She was under the silver moon banner, which Hazel thought was a little strange. Shouldn't she be under an eagle banner or something?

"Oh, and, um, not to give you more bad news," said Piper, "but the twin giants told us that, er, Gaia'll wake on August 1st."

"Then we'll just have to hold the camp until then," Jason's sister said determinedly.

On that happy note, Leo swiped his hand through the rainbow, and the Iris-message dissipated.

**So what do you think? Camp Half-Blood knows all about the deadlines now. And about two of their leaders falling into Tartarus. The next chapter will be from someone else's point of view, I'm not sure yet. I think I'll have some chapters from Reyna's point of view, just not yet. The fight between the Greeks and the Romans just can't be viewed properly in dreams and visions from Katoptris. And this chapter is a little longer than the other two chapters, because of the super-long Iris-message. Sorry! And it might take a while before I can upload the next chapter.**


	4. Chapter 4: Jason

**Sorry again for the delay. Here's Chapter 4 – from Jason's point of view.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Heroes of Olympus.**

Chapter IV Jason

Jason felt horrible. Maybe it was because he was starving and he'd heard somewhere that the brain doesn't function well if it was hungry, but he thought it was mostly because of that Iris-message. The camp had learned that Percy and Annabeth had fallen into Tartarus and hadn't yelled at them for messing it up or something, which just made Jason feel worse. And he hadn't even gotten to talk to his sister properly, but had received this look from Hazel that _obviously _meant 'I'll grill you later'.

There was a knock on his door. He opened it and found Piper standing there, looking a bit uncomfortable as she glanced into his rather messy room. Actually there were clothes everywhere. He'd tried to practise his air powers last night to sort out his stuff but the mini-gale he'd summoned collapsed halfway and left his room super-messy.

"Uh, Coach Hedge called another 'war council'. It's on in five minutes, so you should probably get moving," she said.

Jason nodded and the two of them headed for the dining room. After every disaster or major monster attack, they'd met there. He'd come to associate the dining room with very bad things.

When they arrived, Hazel and Frank were just sitting down. Nico was in the chair next to Hazel, and Coach Hedge was sitting at the top of the table. The person (or satyr) who called the meeting always sat at the top.

"Right, so now the Iris-message is done. We need to discuss our next move," declared Coach before he'd even sat down.

"Uh, shouldn't it be, like, head to Greece as fast as we can?" asked Frank.

"And, like, avoid monster attacks?" added Hazel.

"Well… yes, but we need to figure out how fast we can get to Greece, and, uh, a more pressing issue – _do_ we tell… you know," said Coach Hedge awkwardly, which seemed wrong. Coach was _never_ awkward or uncertain. Jason guessed this "you know" character was dangerous if it even made hyper Coach awkward.

Leo whistled. "Festus!" he called. "Maps of the Mediterranean!"

A rope dropped out of nowhere, with some scrolls attached to it. Leo selected the one with the blue ribbon and unfurled it. It seemed really old – it was yellowy and cracked.

When Leo unfurled it, a map of the _Mare Nostrum _– well, it only really showed Italy and Greece – appeared. But apparently that wasn't what Leo wanted to show them.

Nico's eyes widened as Leo set his hands on fire. "What –"

Leo touched the map and it shimmered. Holographic images of Italy and Greece appeared. Everyone whistled. Jason couldn't help but be amazed. It wasn't everyday that you saw a holographic map. "Where'd you find it?" he asked.

"Bunker Nine," Leo said proudly. "There's maps of – well, almost all the world – there."

Frank stared at the map. "So… we're here?" he asked, pointing at a part of the ocean.

"Well, we're almost there. With Archimedes' sphere, we should be able to get to Greece – oh, here's Epiros – we should be able to get to the Doors of Death in about 3-5 days. Assuming we have monster attacks every two days, and we spend three at the Doors, we'd still have at least one free day. I think we should spend it as some relax time – on this island maybe. I'm not sure what the name is," he said, pointing at a small island halfway between Italy and Greece.

"So we go enjoy ourselves on an island during the end of the world? I'm in. It's been _soooo_ long since I relaxed," said Nico.

"OK, one problem solved. So do we…" Coach trailed off and glanced at Nico. Coach _never_ trailed off on anything. Or glance at anyone for support.

"Do we what?" asked Frank.

Nico took a deep breath and said "Weatherweteasee." Jason had no idea what that was supposed to mean. Nico'd said it in such a rush Jason was amazed he'd even heard anything.

"Weather… we tea see?" repeated Frank. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"Whether… we tease?" asked Leo. "That's what I heard."

Nico took another deep breath. "Whether we tell the sea," he managed. "I mean, Percy's dad."

"Percy's dad?" echoed Hazel. "You mean Nep – Poseidon? The sea god?"

"Uh. Um. Yes."

"But he's a god," said Leo uncertainly. "Wouldn't he have, like, I don't know, already seen it?"

"Gods know better than to visit Tartarus," said Nico flatly.

Piper raised her hand. "Er, can't gods be everywhere at once? He'd have heard, wouldn't he?"

"Well, I'm not sure. I guess we'll know as soon as the first storm hits," said Nico. "I mean, the first serious, incredibly powerful storm."

"So we're stopping on an island completely surrounded by the sea, while hoping the sea doesn't know about Percy?" asked Jason.

"Well, should we tell him? I wouldn't mind, if he doesn't send storms our way," said Piper. "And isn't it, like, rude to not tell a god first? I mean, we've told Camp Half-Blood. Shouldn't we tell gods first?"

"Okay, so we tell him. No problem," said Nico. "But how, well, do we tell him? Or even contact him? I'm not going to send an Iris-message to a god. Throw a stone into the water or something? And how are you supposed to tell a god his son fell into Tartarus without getting him angry?"

"How about we accidentally let it slip while we're on the island stop?" suggested Coach Hedge.

"Brilliant!" said Piper. "We can just 'mention' it casually while we're on the island. A slip of the tongue."

"So it's all settled?" asked Leo. "Festus, set course for the island stop."

The ship shifted as it made course for the island. Gods, but Jason hoped the sea god wouldn't get mad. Which he knew was at least was unlikely. Every instinct told him the sea god wouldn't be too pleased.

**So, the demigods are now heading for an island as some relax time, and plan on telling Poseidon the bad news. What will happen when Poseidon hears? Storms or calm seas?**


	5. Chapter 5: Jason

**And this is Chapter Five. The crew of the Argo II are ready to let their worries go for a day. But they also have the unpleasant task of telling Poseidon the news. So will the island be relaxing or not?**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Heroes of Olympus.**

Chapter V Jason.

Jason jumped off the Argo II and onto dry white sand. The island was softly forested and the sea glittered. The other demigods were already racing for the sea. He wasn't too sure about that idea though. After all, he was a son of the sky god, and the sea… well, it didn't like him.

Piper was the first to reach the sea. Then Hazel. The two of them splashed and sprayed water everywhere while Frank turned himself into a giant sea bass and swam around. Leo sat down and began making a sandcastle. He paid it a lot of attention, because quite soon the sandcastle had a moat, a drawbridge and towers. Coach Hedge was staying on board to watch the Athena Parthenos. And his martial arts programmes, of course.

"Come on Jason!" Piper called. "It'll be fine!"

Nico absently drew lines in the sand with his Stygian-iron sword. Then he dived in after his sister, who was laughing as she splashed Frank the Sea Bass.

"Jason! Will you come on! And it's all right if you get your clothes wet, you know! Relax!" called Hazel.

Against his better judgement, Jason stepped onto the wet sand. Nothing happened. So far, so good.

He took a step into the waves. That wasn't the best idea he'd ever had. A couple of waves joined together and splashed him in the face, leaving him with a salty aftertaste and seaweed stuck in his hair.

Piper exploded into laughter. "Oh my gods," she managed. "You look ridiculous. Forget – forget what I said about being – fine."

Hazel gave him a grin. "Maybe you better stay on land," she said.

He decided to try again. This time, he was soaked to the skin _and_ got a mouth full of seaweed. He got the message – _"Stay out"_ and headed back for dry land. He summoned some wind and got a lift back to Leo's sandcastle.

"You can help me with the walls," Leo said as he landed. "I need the dry-wet mix of sand – it works like cement – and then I need to get the walls together and coat them with some of the dry sand to get it all together."

Jason did not get a single word of that, but he summoned a fresh breeze and blew over some dry sand. Soon Leo had a proper castle – with every characteristic of a medieval castle in it. It was brilliant.

The sun was slowly falling now. He guessed it was about five, six o'clock maybe, what with the summer and all. Leo was now hurling random fireballs at small rabbits and building a fire to cook the rabbits. It smelled pretty good. His stomach rumbled.

Pretty soon the temperature began to fall. Piper, Hazel, Nico and Frank waded back onto dry sand and sat down. Leo summoned his fire abilities and dried everyone's clothing. It seemed warm and comfortable. _At times like this_, Jason thought, _it's hard to believe Gaia's rising and the world about to end._

As the demigods started to tuck in to Leo's roasted rabbit, the sunset faded and the stars came out. Jason noticed a shape in the stars he'd never seen before – a constellation like a girl with a bow, running across the sky. He pointed it out to Piper, who nodded.

Coach Hedge waved from the Argo. "You guys gonna sleep on the beach or something?"

"Nah, we'll be on the ship soon," Leo called back lazily. "Gods, this feels _so_ good."

"Did you guys all have fun today?" Jason asked.

Piper laughed. "I know I enjoyed myself watching you get splashed!"

Frank smiled. "That _was_ funny, you were drenched."

"I wish Percy was here," Nico said absently. "He might have convinced his dad to let you have a swim."

The temperature seemed to drop. They were _supposed_ to tell Poseidon by a slip of the tongue, but Jason did not expect it to be like this. The air seemed to be quieter too. He strained his ears, then realised what was wrong. There was no sound of the waves lapping against the shore. He glanced at the sea and saw that there were _no_ waves lapping against the shore. The entire shoreline had become still, as if frozen.

He looked at the other demigods and saw that they had realised it too. Hazel glanced nervously at the sea. Leo looked freaked out by the no-wave thing.

"This is freaky," Frank said in a small voice. "Who says we go back on ship right now?"

Leo extinguished his flames and they all got up. Before they could reach the rope ladder, though, the sea swept in, swamping the sand. They were practically stuck in Poseidon/Neptune's territory now, and Jason had a bad feeling the god wouldn't let them go until he heard the story.

Nico looked shocked as the sea swirled around his ankles, and Jason remembered the god of the Underworld was probably not on too-friendly terms with the sea god either.

The sea rose slightly. Leo promptly caught on fire with fright, but his flames were doused by the sea. Jason could tell Hazel was worried, because a huge diamond surfaced right next to her.

Piper took a deep breath and spilled out the story. As soon as she spoke, the sea receded slightly. Unfortunately, when she got to the Tartarus bit, the sea rose again.

Frank turned into a falcon and flew on deck. Hazel sloshed after him, jumping on huge diamond rocks. Nico, Piper and himself followed as best as they could, but it wasn't easy. Piper continued to talk as best as she could, hopping from diamond to diamond and scrambling up the rope.

Leo sent the Argo soaring into the sky – just in time. Jason could only watch as the sea drowned the island, then slowly receded, leaving very wet soil.

Piper, standing next to him, gasped. He glanced up and followed her gaze.

Ahead, clouds were forming. Dark rain clouds. And they were flying straight into it.

**So… the demigods have told Poseidon, who obviously isn't too pleased with them. And they're sailing straight into a storm. What do you think will happen next?**


	6. Chapter 6: Reyna

**The six demigods and Coach Hedge are cruising towards the storm, but this chapter is going to be between Camp Jupiter and Camp Half-Blood.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own HoO**

Chapter VI Reyna

Reyna circled above the Twelfth Legion on Scipio. They were marching towards the Greek camp, Camp Half–Blood. It had been quite an easy trip through New York – five legionnaires to a taxi, depositing them on Farm Road whatever. At an hour to sunset, they were ready – armour on, weapons at hand, things like that. She'd let Octavian lead the First and Third Cohorts – why not? At least she'd be able to say it wasn't her fault, if the attack went wrong.

She saw the rise of the hill, but it was quite different from the old map. For one thing, there was a pine tree on the crest of the hill. There seemed to be some kind of golden fuzzy mat on the tree. For another thing, a pile of cables lay next to the tree. Some kind of tripwire, maybe? They would have to be careful not to set it off.

Scipio banked to the right and landed next to a bush, and she jumped off. A chilly breeze raised the hairs at the back of her neck. The plan had been altered slightly when their scouts had first reported a pine tree on the rise of the hill. Now, some of the Fourth Cohort would chop – or at least try to chop – down the pine tree, to weaken the camp's borders. Presumably that was what the pine tree did. Meanwhile the First, Third and the rest of the Fourth Cohort would attack the camp itself.

Reyna raised her binoculars to her eyes as a small figure moved on the hill. It was a girl, dressed in a silver jacket and jeans. She had electric-blue eyes and a silver circlet on her dark spiky hair. There was a bow and a quiver of arrows on her back. Strangely, there was a silvery-white wolf padding at her feet. She guessed the girl was a sentry or something, but how would the Greeks have heard about the invasion?

The girl and the wolf both looked relaxed, but being a daughter of Bellona, Reyna could tell they were actually tense and ready for action. Still, they looked so relaxed Reyna thought tense or no, it would still take them ages to react to anything.

The girl said something to the wolf and stroked it. Reyna was just within hearing distance, and she caught the words "Percy", "Annabeth" and "doing". She had a feeling it was probably something like "_Wonder how Percy and Annabeth are doing_"

As soon as the girl finished her sentence, the light wind became a full gale. Leaves swirled around. The wind was so strong Reyna could barely keep her ground. The gods probably didn't like that question, or something.

The girl shouted something lost in the wind. The gale slowed to a stiff breeze, but Reyna had a feeling one of the wind gods – or maybe even Jupiter himself – wasn't satisfied with whatever the girl had said.

The wolf blinked its yellow eyes, then fixed it on where "Octavian's" force was. It growled slightly, and the girl nodded. This time Reyna caught every sentence.

"So the Romans are here? Finally? They are _so_ late, like. We've been prepared for the last three days, like. Why are Romans always unable to keep their word?"

Reyna had absolutely no clue how in Pluto the girl knew they'd been supposed to attack two days ago, or even that they were there. The wolf smelled them? Could she understand it – the wolf? The girl spoke it with such certainty Reyna _did_ know she hadn't been guessing. And how _had_ the girl known they were supposed to attack two days ago? Maybe she'd had one of those demigod dreams? Or maybe one of seven of the prophecy told her? That was ridiculous – how could the "seven" contact the Greek camp when they were at least in Rome now, maybe even Greece? More pressingly, why didn't the girl send a messenger or something to tell the camp? A million questions swam around in her head, but the girl's next words jolted her back to earth.

"Why do Romans fight in groups? Single combat is _way_ better. You either win or lose. Groups – winning equals sharing and so does losing. Is this because Romans are afraid of losing? But that would make them cowards, wouldn't it? I don't think they're cowards. So why _do_ they fight in groups?"

Being called a coward, even offhandedly, made Reyna's blood heat with anger. Romans were _not_ cowards! Just because Romans fought in groups didn't mean they were weak. They were trained that way. And it was useful, protective. She resisted the urge to jump out and kill the girl on the spot. But in a strange way, she found herself admiring the girl, just a little. One had to be seriously brave to talk like that in front of a legion.

While she was successful in reining back her anger, Octavian apparently was not. He leapt out of his hiding place and charged the girl, screaming "ROMANS ARE NOT COWARDS!"

**So, the attack proper on Camp Half-Blood has begun. And its begun by Octavian screaming. What will happen when he attacks Thalia – yes, we know it's her but her name isn't mentioned because the Romans don't know - (and in single combat, Greek territory?)**


	7. Chapter 7: Reyna

**Camp Half-Blood is now under attack from the Roman army… and the attack is begun by Octavian screaming. So what happens next?**

**Disclaimer: I do not own HoO**

Chapter VII Reyna

Reyna wanted to strangle Octavian! Couldn't he keep his temper for once in his life? Now he'd ruined a very important strategy _and_ was in single combat, the very thing Reyna had told the legion to avoid. Still, she couldn't deny she didn't like Octavian, and this might be interesting enough.

Octavian kept screaming as he ran with his _pilum_ in front of him, probably intending to stab the girl. The girl, though, was incredibly fast, even with shock. Octavian stabbed and she simply wasn't there, either her or the wolf. They'd both sidestepped.

As Octavian brought his _pilum_ up again, the girl ducked and sidestepped again. Her fingers shot into her sleeves. When Octavian tried again, two hunting knives flashed red in the sunset and easily parried the attack. Octavian decided to try once more. Apparently this was to be his last try with the _pilum_, because the girl's knives shot upwards – and sliced Octavian's _pilum_ into three equal parts. Octavian was left holding a neatly sliced piece of wood, while the spearhead and part of the shaft lay on the ground.

Reyna's mouth dropped open. That was incredible. All right, Octavian's weapon wasn't Imperial Gold, but all the _pila_ had been thoroughly soaked with a hardening substance so it was harder to break. And the girl had just sliced and _bam_! The spear was gone.

Octavian's mouth dropped open and he stumbled backwards. "How in Pluto -?"

He never got further than that, because the girl stepped forwards, keeping pace with him, and slashed in a wide arc. He jumped backwards to avoid it and hastily drew his _gladius_.

What happened next was something Reyna had only seen twice before in her life, on Circe's Island and when Percy Jackson had been in the war games. The girl moved in that curious Greek style, more of a dance than a fight. Octavian grew redder and redder from exhaustion, while the girl leapt, ducked and slashed without even seeming to get tired. It was amazing.

Suddenly the girl dropped backwards, slipping both knives into her sleeves. Octavian instantly slumped, gasping for breath and _completely_ red in the face.

"Who… who… who are you?" he panted.

The girl shrugged. "A sentry," she said. "Are _all_ Romans this bad?"

"Ri – ri- ridicu – ridiculous," Octavian managed. "Shouldn't… shouldn't you be, like, sending a message or something? Panicking at least?"

The girl sighed. "Well, it wouldn't harm," she said casually. Reyna wanted to strangle Octavian again. Why – oh why? – did he have to go and remind the girl to tell the _graecus_ camp? So much for surprise.

The girl took out a silver whistle and blew on it. Reyna winced. But instead of the shrill cry she'd expected, the unmistakeable shriek of an eagle shattered the still air.

At first when she glanced up, Reyna could see nothing. But then she spotted a small black spot, circling high above. With a screech it dropped from the sky, spreading its wings at the last second to land on the girl's arm.

The girl murmured something to the eagle, who nudged her affectionately, then spread its wings and lifted off, soaring away towards a curl of smoke in the distance. Reyna felt rather insulted, even if the insult wasn't deliberate. The eagle was the symbol of Jupiter, of the legion, of Camp Jupiter, and of the king of the birds. And the girl used it as a _messenger_! That was just rude. And _why_ did she have to pick the eagle? The Romans would have shot a falcon out of sky with no problem, but the eagle was different. Nobody wanted to eat a lightning bolt.

Apparently the same thoughts were crossing Octavian's mind. "How dare you!" he spluttered.

The girl frowned. "Dare what?" she asked, mystified.

"Use the symbol of the Lord of the Sky as a messenger! That's – that's just – rude! Blasphemy!" he said.

The girl stared at him. "Is it? Well, Father has no objections to –"

"I don't care who your father is! It makes no difference anyway, unless you're – what's your equivalent? Zeus? Unless you're the daughter of Zeus! If he's a god, he'd say it's rude to use the eagle as a messenger! If he's a mortal, he'd _still_ say it's rude!" Octavian interrupted. There was something like a flash of triumph in his eyes, although why Reyna had absolutely no idea.

The girl's eyes flashed with deadly anger, and Reyna had the feeling Octavian had stepped over the line. The air turned electric with tension. Then Reyna realised it actually _was_ electric. Sparks were popping off the girl's skin and fizzing out. But that was impossible. Unless – no, it couldn't be. Surely not.

Octavian seemed a little nervous as well from the sparks flying off the girl. Was it possible he'd come to the same conclusion as her? But the girl just couldn't be -.

Reyna's thoughts were interrupted by the girl. The girl was looking at the crew with axes who were supposed to chop the pine tree. "I wouldn't do that if I were you," she called.

A second later, the pile of cables opened golden eyes. How –?

It blew a huge burst of fire, scattering the Fourth. A dragon! But why –? That – that bath mat – it _couldn't_ be the real Golden Fleece, could it?

The girl turned back to Octavian. "Guess what?" she said in a frozen tone. "I _am_ the daughter of Zeus."

The temperature seemed to drop by twenty degrees as the Twelfth Legion Fulminata stared at her.

**The Romans now know they're facing a daughter of Zeus. And they're completely in shock. So what happens now to the attack?**

**By the way, I realised Jason only had two chapters before Reyna, so he'll have another one after the Greek VS Roman chapters.**


	8. Chapter 8: Reyna

**This will be the last Roman VS Greek for quite some time. Next chapter belongs to Jason, then 3 for Frank, 3 for Hazel, 2 for Jason before going back to Camp Jupiter VS Camp Half-Blood.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own HoO**

Chapter VIII Reyna

The Twelfth Legion Fulminata stared at the girl with dark spiky hair in shock. The daughter of Zeus/Jupiter? That _had_ to be a lie. Reyna didn't _want_ to believe it, but she had a bad feeling it was true. Only a child of Zeus/Jupiter would dare to use the eagle itself as a messenger.

Octavian stared at the girl. Disbelief was painted all over his face. "You – you can't be a daughter of Jupiter," he stammered. "It's impossible! You're lying!"

The girl raised an eyebrow. "Would you like to test me?" she asked in that same chilly voice.

"Why not? You can't be the daughter of the Lord of the Sky," Octavian replied. He seemed to be getting some of his confidence back.

The girl flipped out one of those hunting knives. Then she said, "Don't blame me if you get fatal injuries. Or die. Swear it on the Styx."

Looking a bit more nervous now, Octavian said, "I swear by your terms."

Before Octavian could react, the girl pointed her knife at Octavian. A burst of white energy – electricity – exploded out of the knife and blazed straight at Octavian.

Octavian yelped at the electricity shot into his breastplate. It instantly started to spark and crackle. Soon every piece of his armour was crackling with electricity and sparking.

That could _not_ be good for his health. Not that Octavian had ever been properly healthy or a fighter. Reyna sometimes thought the teddy-bear killings/murders sapped his health or something. All right, he wasn't a demigod, but still, he was so _useless_ at fighting…

Octavian made a gasping sound and slumped to the ground. His armour continued to smoke. Reyna glanced upwards. If he was going to catch fire (hopefully not, even if she did _not_ like Octavian) some rain would be really helpful. There was no sign of a single rain cloud, though.

"You know," the girl said casually, "boys are _so_ dumb, sometimes. It would help, probably a lot, if you took off that metal armour." That with a pointed look at Octavian, who was still jerking on the ground.

Octavian managed to take off some of his armour. The sparks continued to fly, but he certainly seemed to be less affected now. At least he wasn't making those gasping, croaking noises. Reyna normally associated them with death, or maybe a person taking their last breath. Not that she would wish that on anyone. Not even Octavian.

"How far down are you?" the girl asked Octavian. What did that mean?

"What do you mean?" managed Octavian.

The girl sighed. "Your _what_ was godly. Like, say your great-great-great grandfather was Are-Mars. Then you'd be fifth generation."

"Godly ancestor? Um, my great-great-great grandfather was Apollo. I guess that makes me, um, fifth generation? I'm Octavian," Octavian offered. Being friendly to a _graecus_? So he didn't want to be jolted again. Fair enough, Reyna supposed.

And now she could hear jingling armour as well as running feet. The eagle the girl had sent with her message landed and gave a shrill cry. The girl just nodded.

"Fifth," she said. "So you'd have a resistance of, um, 0.32 times – gods, I hate arithmetic. I need an Athena camper," she grumbled. "I'm rubbish at maths."

A few minutes later, the first camper came up the slope. He was dressed in Greek armour, but he had a bow and quiver instead of a sword. An archer?

"Hey, Thalia," he said. "By the way, do you teach your girls to force boys to bow or something? We had to _beg_ before they would tell us! Honestly!"

The girl gave a wry smile. "Well, girls are better than boys. We just like to make it more, ah, widely known. By the way, Will," she said with a mischievous smile, "that boy over there, the one practically dying of a tiny static shock, is your, ah, great-great-grandnephew."

The boy – Will? Will's mouth dropped open. "What?" he asked incredulously. "Him – me? We're _related_? Are you serious?"

"Yes, he really is related to you," Thalia? Was it Thalia? said.

"He – we – he looked nothing even _close_ to Apollo!" Will protested. "He just can't be related to me. He's – I don't know – too skinny, for one thing!" he blurted out desperately.

"How would you know what Apollo looks like?" demanded Octavian. "Have you ever seen him?"

Thalia rolled her eyes. "Been there, done that," she said. "Driven the sun bus, yes. Heard the haikus, yes."

"He really does not look like Apollo," Will said. "You know, I think he looks like Luke."

"Who's Luke?" Octavian asked.

"A he–" began Thalia.

"A t –" began Will.

They both glared at each other. "Someone we knew who fell in the Titan War," Thalia finally said.

Well, that was interesting to Reyna. The daughter of Zeus had definitely started to say something beginning with HE. The Will boy – T. Tree? Target? Tennis player? Reyna was definitely interested, but she turned her attention back to the scene.

"He fell in the Titan War?" Octavian asked. He looked mystified.

"Uh-huh," Will said. "You look a lot like him. He was a son of Hermes, you know. He… died during the war."

"You actually defended Olympus? How come I don't really believe you? Do you have proof?" demanded Octavian, who was pushing himself up now, using the rock. Apparently he was getting ready to avoid another shock.

Thalia's eyes flashed lightning. _Be careful_, it seemed to say.

Octavian noticed. He shrank a little, then seemed to decide he would be all right, and ploughed on. "Who is this Luke, anyway? He 'fell' in the war? How did he fell? Attacking some of those snake women?"

Both campers' eyes flashed with anger. Reyna instantly knew they were going to yell at Octavian, maybe shock him again. She wondered what would happen.

They glared at Octavian, then promptly started to talk at the same time. Or would have.

Interrupting them was a blazing flash of golden light. Reyna was instantly blinded. After a few seconds she blinked the spots out of her eyes.

Standing where the flash had been, there was a man in jogging clothes. Or maybe not a man, since he was wearing _winged _sandals. Mercury/Hermes?

"Excuse me?" the god demanded.

**Ooh, TWO gods now seriously annoyed. Poseidon isn't happy about his son falling into Tartarus. Hermes isn't too happy about his son Luke "dying by attacking snake women". Octavian is going to be facing a **_**serious**_** talk now! I'll be getting back to that in around Chapter 18, because I'm going to be with the Argo II now for some time. So it will have to wait a bit. Any ideas on Hermes' 'talk' with Octavian?**


	9. Chapter 9: Jason

**This is from the Argo II, now facing a very ominous storm. So what happens next? Do they make it?**

**Disclaimer: I do not own HoO**

Chapter IX Jason

Jason stared at the oncoming storm. It was huge, dead black, and his senses told him there was something like a hurricane in the middle. He briefly wondered if he should try control it with his storm powers, but instantly pushed that thought away. At best, he would faint, the storm would still rage and his dad and the sea god would have a bit of an argument. At worst, he would accidentally kill himself, the storm would keep raging, and the sea god would start a furious argument with the sky god. That would be just what they needed, two of the Big Three arguing and fighting when Gaia was rising.

"Hold tight!" Leo yelled. "Festus says we can't avoid it!"

"At least secure the statue!" Piper called. "We didn't lose them to drop the Athena Parthenos to a storm!"

They staggered over to the statue in the howling wind, and with the help of part-time elephant Frank, managed to push, squish, roll the statue below deck. Coach Hedge poked his head out and whistled when he saw the storm.

"So Poseidon sent this?" he called.

"Probably," Jason called back. "Or maybe it's Gaia, but I don't think she has that much power in the sky."

A sharp, needle-like rain sprang up, lashing the demigods.

"Hold on!" Leo shouted. Even though he was almost right next to Jason, it sounded as if he was at the other end of a tunnel, with a train rattling through it.

Nico and Hazel were gripping the railing so tight their knuckles were white. They were both nervous, because suddenly the railing was encrusted in rubies and white bones. Nico's hair was plastered everywhere by the rain. Hazel expanded one of the rubies into a crystal umbrella to shelter them as best as she could from the sea god's fury.

Leo stumbled over to the steering wheel, then promptly started turning the wheel, shaking the Wii controllers. The sails snapped down and folded themselves. The weapons retracted, leaving just the shields on the side of the ship. Jason had to say it wasn't a bad idea. He didn't think ballistae would be much good against a hurricane.

And then suddenly he couldn't see the storm anymore. He was puzzled for a moment, then realised why.

They were now _in_ the storm.

Winds at around 200 miles per hour stormed and raged around him, almost blowing him off. Hazel and Nico, expanding the ruby umbrella with more jewels and bones, kicked the trapdoor open and joined Coach below deck. Frank flew over as a seagull, gliding on the crazy winds, then dropped into the hatch. Jason created his own air bubble to keep him as safe as he could manage. Creating it almost took it out of him, especially since he hadn't slept and it was at least midnight by now.

Piper and Leo joined him, and the three of them swung down below deck. Here at least they couldn't feel the stinging rain or the mad winds. But they _could_ feel the lurch of the ship as the storm battered it.

The ship tilted to the right, sending everyone crashing against the wall, then just as quickly tilted to the left. Hazel turned green as they slipped and slid from one wall to another, but nobody could stop it.

The ship lurched upwards, down, sideways. They were thrown up, down, left, right, forwards, backwards.

At one point Nico crashed into the Athena Parthenos. Or was going to, before a brilliant rose-coloured force field burst into life across the statue. Unfortunately that just made it worse, because Nico bounced off and was sent hurtling towards the wall, accidentally flying into Coach Hedge. It was all Jason could do to keep himself from crashing.

Then for a few seconds there were _no_ winds. Everyone dropped down onto the floor and shakily stood up. Leo quickly grabbed some ropes and began tying himself to a soft plastic pillar that did almost nothing to Jason's eyes.

"The eye of the storm," Piper said, realising. "We've got to get handholds before we're thrown again. Move!"

She said the last part with a touch of charmspeak, and Jason found himself grappling with ropes, trying to get tangled up as best as he could. He saw the others doing the same.

Then they exploded from calm to not-so-calm again, and the wind and rain sent the ship into awkward motion.

Jason was now swinging from the ropes, hanging on for dear life as the ropes moved with the ship's swaying and he was sent forwards, backwards, left and right.

_Gods_, he thought. _This is really what we need on a quest to stop Gaia_.

From exhaustion, swinging or just desperate to escape from the lurching ship for a while, one after the other they fell asleep. Jason saw Piper's, Leo's and Hazel's eyes close before he himself fell asleep, exhausted from the air bubble, the wild winds and from the fact it was one in the morning – at least – and it was _way_ past his normal sleeping time.

Outside, the storm still raged and battered the Argo II, but every person on the Argo, except Nico and Coach Hedge, were sound asleep from exhaustion.

**The demigods are now about three-quarters of the way through the storm. And they're all asleep. Will this be the only storm sent by Poseidon? Or will there be more?**


	10. Chapter 10: Frank

**Now the demigods of the Argo II are asleep. This chapter is from Frank's point of view. So what happens in his dreams?**

**Disclaimer: I do not own HoO**

Frank's eyes opened to pitch-black darkness. He wondered where he was. This definitely wasn't the Argo. He seemed to be in some sort of a cave.

Running feet burst into the cave. It was Percy and Annabeth! Frank felt a burst of relief. At least they were still alive. An instant later, his relief turned into alarm. Several dozen of those horrible snake-women – the _dracaenae_ – were right behind them, and behind _them_ were a dozen telkhines and a giant.

"Oh, great," Frank heard Percy groan. "All the monsters we killed in the Titan War are back. Now all we need is Kronos with his scythe."

"Be positive," Annabeth muttered.

They twisted down a tiny side passage, pursued by the monsters, and were suddenly teetering on a tiny ledge barely wide enough for one person. There seemed to be something below them – a really _really_ deep pit? It seemed to be swirling, although maybe that was his imagination. It seemed to be of a lighter colour than the rest of Tartarus – a pale black rather than midnight black.

The telkhines were much closer now, and the _dracaenae_ also. Apparently the giant couldn't make it. One good thing. But it was unlikely they'd slice through all the monsters _and_ be able to beat the giant, not when they were in the place monsters reformed. Frank felt really worried now.

Then his dream _shifted_.

He was standing next to a boy in Greek armour with a bow and a girl with silver clothing. The girl looked like – what had Jason called her? Thalia? He could see Octavian with his back to a rock, talking like crazy – and looking terrified. He could spot Reyna as well, behind some bushes. The bulk of the legion was behind other bushes.

Octavian was talking as fast as he could, sweat beading on his face. Why -?

Frank's view shifted until he was right next to the boy. Now he could see someone in front of Octavian, a furious look on his face. The someone was wearing jogging clothes, but he clearly wasn't a jogger, because he was wearing sandals instead of running shoes. And the sandals had wings. A god, then. God with sandals…winged sandals… Frank 'scratched' his head, then realised. Mercury. Or probably Hermes, since this camp was Greek. Why was Hermes at the Greek camp?

He caught the words 'sorry', 'so sorry', 'I swear I'm sorry', and 'I didn't mean it. Honestly!' from Octavian. But Octavian wouldn't be stupid enough to insult a _god_, would he?

With that thought, Frank drifted awake. His eyes opened to the hallway of the Argo, and he could hear the wind howling and the rain lashing down. He remembered, suddenly. Piper telling Poseidon the story, the mad storm, bouncing up and down.

Blinking, he glanced around. Leo was sound asleep. So were Piper, Hazel and Jason. Nico was watching the surroundings warily, as if any minute he expected monsters out of the shadows. That wasn't unlikely. They were in the original lands of the gods, after all.

He wondered what time it was. His body clock told him it was eight, nine maybe. The weather outside told him it was evening, but that wasn't likely.

Frank turned into a falcon and dropped down from the ropes. He peered out of the window. The rain was still lashing, the ship still lurching, the ropes swaying.

_At least there's one good thing about this storm, _Frank thought. _We won't be bothered by monsters._

It certainly seemed there wouldn't be any monsters. What monster would come out in this storm? Why would anybody, demigod or no, be out in a storm like this?

He shook his head, then thought about his dreams. Percy and Annabeth he could do nothing about. He couldn't do much about the Camp Half-Blood scenario either. But he could think. And why _was _Hermes there, at the Greek camp?

"Nico, would there be any reason Hermes would appear at Camp Half-Blood when the Roman legion is attacking, and in front of Octavian?" asked Frank, turning back into a human.

Nico stared at him, then thought for a while. "No…" he said slowly. "Not really. Zeus said Olympus was closed. The only possible reason… no, that's ridiculous. Did you hear any names?" he asked Frank.

"I heard 'sorry' over and over again," Frank offered, trying to stay on his feet.

"The only reason I could think of would be if Luke was mentioned. In front of Octavian, though... no idea. Were there any other people?"

"Well, there was Thalia. And a boy in armour, an archer."

"That might explain something. Octavian does look a lot like Luke. Too much for me. It's creepy. If.. the boy was an archer?" Frank nodded.

"Well, the boy could be a son of Apollo. And Octavian, he's descended from Apollo, isn't he? It would be just like Thalia to say they were related. And the son of Apollo, he'd probably say Octavian and him look nothing alike. It's possible he'd say Octavian looks like Luke. This is extremely unlikely, but it's possible Octavian ends up insulting Luke some way. _Then_ Hermes might appear, because Luke was his son, after all. But it's unlikely."

"It _is_ possible," agreed Coach Hedge. Frank hadn't even noticed the satyr was awake.

Just then Leo woke up. "Wait – where?" He yawned, then set himself alight and doused it just as quickly.

Piper rubbed her eyes, and so did Hazel and Jason. "What's up?" Piper asked drowsily.

"Uh, no –"

He never got further than that, because just then the ship lurched crazily. He glanced out, and froze.

A huge head with beady eyes was rising from the sea. A monster. It clicked its claws, then scuttled forwards, starting to attack the ship.

"Hold on!" yelled Leo.

_This is great_, thought Frank. _What a great week_. _Why can't we have a few days with no monsters?_

**The demigods of the Argo are now being attacked! Is the monster from Poseidon, Gaia - or just a monster that sensed demigods and celestial bronze? And any guesses on what the monster is? Clue: It was killed by Percy in TLO. Currently back from Tartarus.  
**


	11. Chapter 11: Frank

**So, the demigods are being attacked by a monster. The monster (if you haven't already guessed) is the Karkinos, otherwise referred by Percy as "giant as in bigger-than-the-fountain"**

**Disclaimer: I do not own HoO**

Chapter XI Frank

Frank stared at the monster in horror. As it was emerging from the sea, he realised it was a huge crab. Three questions raced in his mind – _what_ was it called? _Who_ sent it? And, most importantly, _how _was it defeated?

His first question was answered a second later when Piper screamed, "Karkinos!"

"Shark?" Leo said. "Piper, it's a crab! Not a shark!"

"No, you dolt! _Karkinos_! Giant crab!"

"Oh, great."

The crab scuttled forwards on the water. They were above it – but then it raised a claw and snapped at the ship. Frank felt the ship sway as the crab claw bit off a shield on the side.

"How do you defeat this thing?" Nico asked.

"Uh, something about that jerk Hercules squashing it under his foot, I think," Piper called back.

"It's a bit bigger than my shoe, don't you think?"

"Maybe if we go high -?" Hazel said.

"It'd just rise up," Coach Hedge said. "What about the weapons on the ship?"

"You want us to fire ballistae at a giant crab?" Jason asked.

"Better action than no action," Coach Hedge muttered.

They swung into motion. Leo ran into the engine room and pressed a few buttons. Frank could hear the whirring of the ballistae as the sides of the ship slid aside and the weapon came out. Jason and Piper scrambled up the rope ladder to aim. Hazel, Nico and himself followed, leaving Coach Hedge in the engine room with Leo.

_Crabs don't look any better up close_,thought Frank. _It's really ugly_.

The crab's eyes spotted them and it clicked its claws, moving forward incredibly fast.

"Fffft," it hissed. "Fffft."

"Anyone speak Crab?" Hazel asked.

They all shook their heads.

Piper and Jason moved the first of the ballistae while Hazel and Frank moved the second. They dragged them over and aimed. Jason sparked his weapons while Hazel topped theirs with sharpened diamonds. Nico carefully pressed the buttons to activate the 'monster alert' weapons.

Jason aimed his and fired. It shattered as soon as it hit the crab's armour, but it wasn't completely useless, because electricity crackled on the crab armour.

Hazel fired their weapon. It hit the crab's armour and drove in. Frank could see sparks as the diamond drilled into the crab. Jason's electricity shot into the hole and the crab shivered.

"Fffft. Fffft."

It rushed forward, claws snapping. The left claw ripped off five shields. The right one snapped at Festus, who blew fire and sent the claw moving away.

It clicked its claws again and struck. This time – was the thing _growing_? Gods, no. But the claw was almost reaching over the railing now. That couldn't be good.

As it reached over to grab Nico, he slashed at it with the Stygian-iron sword. One of the pincers on the left claw fell off, spurting crab blood everywhere. Yuck.

Piper tried charmspeaking the crab, but it didn't work. The crab's eyes glittered with hate, intelligence – but there was no sign of the glaze that appeared with charmspeak. Where was it vulnerable?

Frank glanced all over the crab. His gaze raced past the eyes, then stopped.

_The eyes_… gods, he was an idiot.

"The eyes," Frank yelled. "Aim for the eyes! Blind it!"

Hazel sent two dozen sharp diamonds shooting into the air. The diamonds sheared off one of the eyes. Jason sent a bolt of static energy, paralysing the other.

The blind crab squealed, its claws biting at the air, at wherever it could find. One of the claws grabbed another shield and sent it spinning towards the sea. The other one went too close to Jason, who drew his _gladius_ and sheared off the entire front half.

Frank suddenly felt something odd. No wind. He'd been trying to keep his balance while fighting in the storm for so long it was strange to feel no wind.

He glanced up. The storm was gone. Just like that. No clouds. A clear sky.

He was so stunned the crab almost got him, but he quickly changed into an eagle and dived at the crab. He grabbed the crab's remaining eye with his talons and pulled. The eye was yanked out. He quickly dropped it and flew back to the ship.

The now completely blind crab hissed and squealed. It was going mad, definitely. The remaining claw bit at whatever it could find. Another shield was ripped off.

Then it shivered, and the raspy voice of Gaia spoke.

"You are losing, my little pawns," she whispered. "Even now, my husband stirs. Tartarus is too much for your friends. Fights day and night. My husband will be the death of them. And my sons are rising. Porphyrion is getting stronger, calling his brothers to him. Olympus will fall, sooner or later. And I will rise again."

Leo clambered onto the deck and stared at the giant crab possessed by Gaia.

"You will never make it to Greece in time," she taunted. "You will never see Olympus. The Doors of Death will be your last adventure. And none of you will see them again. My sons will be very careful to destroy Elysium and Asphodel. You will spend your _afterlife_ in Punishment, separated forever. And my husband would very much like you in his territory, too."

That broke the spell, or enchantment, or whatever it was. Jason sent a bolt of electricity at the crab. Hazel's diamonds exploded out of the ship and embedded themselves in the crab armour. Piper slashed with Katoptris. Nico clapped his hands and a huge rock slammed into the crab's back legs, sending it sprawling. Frank fired one of his strongest arrows. And Leo sent a thick stream of fire. The crab instantly dissolved into goo.

That was great, but just then Hazel collapsed, her hands on her head. Nico toppled over as well. Frank and the others raced over.

They were both breathing, at least. But Hazel was unconscious, and Nico kept whispering the word "close" over and over again.

A chill raced down Frank's back. _Close_. Were Percy and Annabeth close to death?

_Be positive_, he told himself.

Still, he couldn't help worrying as he carried his girlfriend below deck.

**Percy and Annabeth are near death? Oh no! What happens next? **


	12. Chapter 12: Frank

**Hazel and Nico are both unconscious! And 'close'… are Percy and Annabeth close to death?**

**Disclaimer: I do not own HoO (seriously, do I have to write this every time?)**

Chapter XII Frank

Frank was holding his unconscious girlfriend in his arms as he headed for the 'infirmary ward'. It was actually just a room with white beds and some medicine – that was, ambrosia and nectar. He carefully set her down on one of the beds as Leo and Coach Hedge carried Nico.

"What's wrong with them?" asked Piper. "One minute they were all right… and the next minute they both collapsed. What happened?"

"Nico said something about 'close'…" Jason said worriedly.

"Oh, gods. You don't think… you don't think he meant…"

"No… no. No. Definitely not." Frank was determined to keep positive.

"You don't think… they collapsed because they got something on their 'death radar'?" Leo asked.

"Who died? Someone they really know or someone who they dislike? I wouldn't mind so much if it was Octavian," Jason said.

Coach Hedge took out a bottle of nectar and some ambrosia. Breaking it into pieces, he fed the ambrosia to Nico and Hazel. Frank carefully poured some nectar into Hazel's mouth.

Nico stirred. "Why…" he mumbled.

Everyone instinctively moved closer. Any news was better than no news… except death news, of course. Frank prayed it wasn't death news. The gods didn't have much power in Tartarus, but still…

"Not dead…" Nico muttered. "Not yet… close, close…"

"Close?" Piper asked in alarm. "No… no way."

Hazel shifted. "Too… too close. Webs… lots of spider web… spinning…"

"Arachne? She caught them?" Leo asked, looking a little desperate. Frank guessed he was praying to the gods that they weren't dead. He knew he was.

"No… other… Percy… fire giant…" Nico said thickly.

"Webs… webs… silky webs… Annabeth…" Hazel shifted again.

"Oh, gods, no. They got separated?" Piper turned pale.

Neither Nico nor Hazel seemed to hear. Both were white, wary. _Possibly communicating direct to Tartarus, though unlikely_, thought Frank.

"Staff? What staff?" Nico asked, though it didn't seem like he was talking to them. "The staff you stole? What… Hermes? What's he got… to do…" His words faded as he turned over in his bed.

"Staff. Hermes," Jason said. "Staff… Hermes… his caduceus?"

"Stole?" Leo echoed. "Stole? Is that supposed to mean the Stoll brothers, or that someone stole something of Hermes? The Stoll brothers are the best tricksters in camp," he added, seeing Frank's mystified expression.

"What, you don't think this… fire giant, or whatever, stole Hermes' caduceus?" asked Piper.

"I sort of doubt Hermes would let his symbol of power get stolen," Jason said.

"Of course, your dad 'lost' his master bolt and Hades 'lost' his helm a few years back, from what Annabeth said," Leo countered. "But Hermes… he's the god of thieves, right? How would a god of thieves get something of his… _thieved_?"

"How did the conversation get from Percy and Annabeth to Hermes' caduceus?" Piper demanded.

Hazel shivered. "Spiders… lots of spiders… crawling everywhere…"

"Fire giant… fire… blowing… lots of fire… fake Rolexes?" That from Nico.

"What's fake Rolexes got to do with a fire-breathing giant?" asked Frank.

"Your guess is as good as mine," Leo said. "As long as this giant isn't related to me, I'm fine."

"Ugh. Since when did you become an Apollo kid?" asked Piper. "Last time I checked, you were a son of Hephaestus and you didn't know how to rhyme. Poems. Horrible." She shuddered.

"Webs, fire, burning, spiders, weird shield, wait, sewer water?" Hazel mumbled.

"Sewer water?" echoed Frank. He had absolutely lost the plot now. "What does sewer water have to do with it?"

"Let me guess… this is about one of their quests together. Fire breathing giant stole Mer – Hermes' caduceus, using it to create fake Rolexes. Percy and Annabeth retrieved the caduceus and dumped sewer water on top of him, sending him to Tartarus," Jason said dramatically.

"Uh, yeah… wouldn't that mean they'd have to face this giant again now?"

"Hot…" Nico mumbled. "Hot hot hot." Hazel added.

"Um, the giant blew fire?" offered Leo.

"Burn… burnt. Water. Hard to burn. River… no river in Tartarus. Where did they get… a memory. The power of the sea… a memory of the power of the sea… _The water is within me_?" Nico said.

"Let me guess this time," Leo said. "Fire breathing giant blows fire. Percy goes in front of Annabeth to protect her. He gets water and douses the flames."

"Where would he get the water from?" asked Frank.

"Naiad… Geryon's stables… thought of naiad at those horrible stables…"

"Geryon? Wasn't he the three-chested guy?"

"Crispy webs… seawater… distractions…" Hazel said.

"The fire fries the webs and Percy uses seawater as a distraction?" Leo wondered.

"Fire… whirlpool… hurricane…"

"Percy could create hurricanes," Frank remembered. "He did it against the resurrecting ghosts of Alcyoneus on Hubbard Glacier."

"Run… fast… dodge…"

"Oh my gods, hurry up and _run_!" Nico said. He put so much force into the last word everyone jumped.

"Run," Hazel said desperately. "Go go go!"

"GO!" Nico yelled. The word was so loud he started awake, his eyes wide.

"Move… _come on_!" Hazel's eyes snapped open and she sat bolt upright, shocked.

"What…" Nico asked blearily. "I can remember the crab…"

"Uh, guys," Piper said hesitantly, "you both collapsed as soon as the crab was gone, and we brought you here, and you were both mumbling something about Percy and Annabeth, something about webs and fire-breathing giants, and running… are they still alive?"

"Yeah, still alive," Nico said shakily. "Cacus and Arachne together, though…"

There was a long silence as everyone thought hard about what they'd heard, or in Nico's and Hazel's case, thought about what they saw.

**Cacus and Arachne together fighting Percy and Annabeth! What happens next?**


	13. Chapter 13: Hazel

**Sorry I was busy this weekend, so I only have one chapter. Christmas shopping and whatnot.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own HoO.**

Chapter XIII Hazel.

The long silence in the room was fine by Hazel. She felt really, _really_ ill after her 'trip' to Tartarus. Hazel could easily understand now why her brother had gone insane. It was a miracle Percy and Annabeth had no ill effects from the place yet.

Leo broke the silence. "Um, guys… I know you probably don't want to talk about it, but, um… what happened? They ran into a fire-breathing giant? Cactus?"

"Cacus, Leo, not cactus," Nico said with the hint of a smile. Leo could actually make everything funny. Like giving really dangerous giants like Enceladus and Porphyrion nicknames like Enchiladas and Porpoise Face to make them seem more ridiculous than dangerous.

"They ran into a fire breathing giant called Cacus," Piper said. "But what does the staff of Hermes have to do with it? You were talking in your sleep," she added, seeing the expressions on their faces.

"And what's up with the Fake Rolexes? And sewer water? What's that got to do with it, Hazel?" Frank asked.

"Oh. Um, while I was, um, watching Percy and Annabeth, I got this, I don't know, _memory_ or something off both of them. About the Cacus guy," Hazel said. "Something about a guy out of a truck talking to them. Then Annabeth used a weird shield to see Cacus in some kind of smelly place. He was petrifying cows or their dung or something. Anyway, he was using this winged staff with two snakes on it. I got the feeling Percy and Annabeth were trying to get it back. And –" Hazel was interrupted by Jason.

"A winged staff with two snakes on it? I get the feeling I've seen it before."

"There was that design on Cabin Eleven," Piper said. "And you've probably seen it somewhere in the Roman camp."

Jason face-palmed himself. "I knew it. That's the caduceus of Hermes. So it must have been _Hermes_ in that van. But why – oh, gods of Olympus. Don't tell me Hermes actually _lost_ his _staff_?"

"You think the god of thieves got thieved?" Leo asked.

"Shut up and let's finish hearing Hazel's story," Coach Hedge said before a debate could break out. Or maybe before Hermes appeared and blasted them.

"As I was saying, there was a bunch of fake Rolexes and the giant was saying something about copying Percy's sword as well," Hazel said. "Then the entire place was flooded with sewer water, I think. Annabeth and Percy lured him over to one of those construction crane things and Annabeth basically crushed Cacus under the huge claw. Apparently Percy knew it would work because he'd taken Annabeth to the arcade or something and they came back with a load of stuffed toys. By the time that memory ended, they'd disabled the spider woman and the giant for a bit and were running," she finished.

"What about you, Nico?" asked Coach Hedge. "Did you get the, um, memory?"

Nico shook his head. "All I got was a close-up of Cacus – he was disgusting – and Arachne – even more horrible. I got the impression Percy was thinking of a naiad at that horrible Triple G Ranch, but that was about it. The giant blew fire and Percy got a hurricane somehow which blew back the fire and accidentally fried Spider Woman a bit. Burnt spider has _got_ to be the most disgusting thing I've ever smelled. Well, maybe the stables were more horrible."

"Triple G Ranch? Where's that? And what's the stables?" asked Jason.

"Uh, Triple G Ranch is in the Labyrinth – you know, the one that used to be housing the Minotaur – and the stables are the ones Hercules cleaned about a million years ago. I'm pretty sure he almost killed the naiad in the river. Hercules, I mean. I don't know if the ranch still exists after the Labyrinth collapsed."

"That jerk," Piper muttered. "First he's rude and then he almost kills a naiad by poisoning her river!"

"Wow, beauty queen, when did you start to care about nature?" asked Leo.

"Shut up or I'll charmspeak you into throwing yourself off the ship," Piper replied.

Meanwhile she could tell Jason was thinking really hard. "How did the Labyrinth collapse?" he asked Nico. "I mean, we found an entrance at our camp and we tried to destroy it, because we knew Saturn was using it somehow, but we had as much success as trying to catch the fox – you know, the one that isn't supposed to be caught."

"The Labyrinth is magical architecture," Nico said. "It's impossible to destroy – or almost. It's like it's got a separate mind of its own. And its life force is linked to Daedalus – the inventor. So if he dies, the Labyrinth goes."

"Uh, yeah, but wasn't Daedalus supposed to be dead ages ago. Like, he lived at the time of _Minos_. That was, like, three, four thousand years ago. How does he survive that long?"

"He made himself an automaton body," said Nico.

That instantly got Leo's attention. "What? An _automaton_ body? That's impossible! He must be a genius!"

Everyone stared at him. "Duh. He is a genius. He's a son of Athena. Most children of Athena are geniuses," said Piper.

"An automaton body? Then how did the Labyrinth fall? He'd be more or less impossible to kill, right?"

"I released his soul from his body. I didn't _kill_ him," Nico added, seeing their shocked looks. "Just… well, I suppose you could call it 'helping him to find the Underworld.'"

"Ok, we're off topic," Piper declared. "I just need to know one thing – are they alive?"

Hazel and Nico glanced at each other. "Yup."

"Phew. Can we get some food? I'm hungry," Jason complained.

Hazel and Nico slipped out of bed and they all headed for the dining room. Well, killing monsters _did_ take a lot out of you, Hazel thought. And she was absolutely starving.

**Dinner time! Percy and Annabeth are still alive. No more monster attacks yet. And no more strong storms yet. Does dinner go as planned? Please review!**


	14. Chapter 14: Hazel

**I'm really, **_**really**_** sorry for the lack of updates lately. The main reasons are because:**

**I got writer's block**

**I'm on holidays in China right now, so I'm kind of busy**

**Broadband connections in China aren't the best.**

**I'll try update ASAP… which might not be that soon. Oops.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own HoO (duh)**

Chapter VIX Hazel

Hazel slipped into the dining room with Frank behind her. They slid into their chairs as Leo went into the hold – something about tofu and 'vegetarian beauty queens'. Piper was fiddling with Katoptris and Nico was twisting his skull ring. Maybe it was a bit early for dinner – all right, it was only about three – but people looked nervous when they had nothing to do, and her stomach was growling. Coach Hedge was humming his new self-created/adapted Pokémon theme song – 'Gotta Kill 'em All' She wished Leo would hurry up with the food.

As soon as she thought that, Leo appeared with steaming cups of instant noodles and plates of what smelled like beef. He passed a cup and plate to Coach Hedge and Piper, then went back into the hold, reappearing with the rest of the food. Everyone waited until Leo took his La-Z-Boy type seat, then promptly dug into their noodles and beef-like tofu patties. Hazel thought it was delicious.

There was absolute silence for the next ten minutes, punctured by sounds of slurping and eating. Nobody so much as looked up from their food. Until Coach Hedge suddenly, and very loudly, said "oh Styx. We forgot to sacrifice to the gods!"

That caught everyone's attention. Nico stopped eating. Jason froze, his fork halfway to his mouth. Piper dropped her fork into her noodles. Hazel's own eating utensils fell from her hands into the rest of her tofu. Leo dropped his knife, on fire, into his noodles, setting the _noodles_ aflame. That started panic as the smell of _normally burning_ food filled the air. Not the kind of smell that floated around in the sacrificial braziers. Jason dropped his fork onto his plate and grabbed the fire extinguisher, dousing the flames – and coating Leo's noodles in the white foamy thing in the extinguishers. Hazel sighed. Who knew noodles could be so flammable?

Coach Hedge sighed too. "Valdez, I said _sacrifice_ to the gods, not set-your-food-on-fire! You do know you have to drop your food _into_ the flame, right?"

Leo turned red. "Er, yeah. Sorry, Coach."

"Idiot Repair Boy," Piper said. "We can't sacrifice foam-coated noodles to the gods!"

"I'm _not _a Repair Boy, _Beauty Queen_!"

"Don't call me beauty queen!"

"All right!" Jason broke in before they could have a full-scale argument. "What do you suggest, Coach?" he asked.

"Hmm… how about Valdez here makes some new noodles we can throw into the fire?" Coach suggested.

Leo sighed. "All right. But!" he said, dragging out the 'u', "you have to make your own food this time!"

"Leo, we're not all genius cooks," said Piper. "I'm pretty sure the gods don't want to try my cooking."

"So you admit I'm the good cook!" Leo said triumphantly.

Piper groaned. "Whatever, Valdez. Will you just make the noodles?"

Leo headed off and reappeared a few minutes later with fresh noodles. Nico instantly brightened. "Seconds! Yes!" he said. That was when Hazel realised her brother's plate was completely empty down to the last crumb.

"Nico," she said. "When did you clean your plate?"

Nico turned red and blushed as everyone stared, first at him, then at his plate. "How…" Frank asked. "When…?"

"I was hungry!" Nico said defensively. "Really, really hungry!"

"Glad to see someone appreciates my cooking!" said Leo with a grin on his face. "Here." He loaded Nico's plate with extra noodles, then passed noodles to everyone else.

Coach Hedge got up and scraped some of the contents of his plate – including part of a tin can – into the fire, saying, "for the gods".

"What god eats metal? Dad could probably _make_ something with it, but what god actually _eats_ it?" Leo wondered.

"Shut up and go, Valdez." Coach glared pure murder at Leo.

"Oh, all right," Leo said. He got up and went over to the fire, dropping some noodles into it. "Hephaestus," he murmured. The fire momentarily burned a brighter orange.

Piper followed. "Aphrodite," she said. The fire briefly turned pink.

"Hades," Nico said. The fire turned dark black for a split second.

Frank, Jason and Hazel glanced at each other. "Uh… do we say the Greek or Roman version of the gods' names?" Hazel asked.

Coach Hedge shrugged. "The one you feel comfortable with," he replied. "Or you could just say 'for the gods', of course."

In the end, Jason and Hazel said "Jupiter" and "Pluto" respectively, while Frank said "for the gods". The result was a white-yellow fire, the colour of lightning, an Underworld colour (a dark grey/black) and a fire that was more red than usual. The smoke that drifted off smelled of noodles.

"Is it just me, or does everyone think the gods are a bit surprised by the fact they only got noodles?" Nico asked. The answer was a bunch of shrugs and 'I don't know' s. Nico shrugged too, then started polishing his plate.

Hazel tucked in to the rest of her own plate too. Things were so different from camp, where _aurae_ waited on them. Then again, they were sailing into what would probably be one of the biggest wars in the Fifth Age. Possibly even bigger than the Titan War. It wasn't so surprising things were a little different. Not when both camps' worlds had turned upside down and she was trying to stop Gaea from rising… She found herself almost starting to wish she was in Asphodel again. At least nothing changed… if you missed out the fact that some old man had started building exit ramps and overpasses in there.

She silently chided herself as she continued to eat her noodles. The idea was ridiculous, anyway. Life – or maybe death – was so boring in Asphodel. This time at least she was _properly_ living.

She'd barely finished _that _thought – and her noodles – when a golden light filled the room.

_Oh, gods_, she thought.

**I promise to try update quickly but this may not be too quickly. This situation will probably continue until about February – possibly until mid-February. It will be very unlikely there will be many additional chapters as some of the places I am staying in do not have broadband and I am busy visiting relatives etc. Sorry! Everything of mine on computer is being severely delayed.**


	15. Chapter 15: Hazel

**That was a bit of a filler chapter – sorry! I just couldn't think of anything. And sorry it took so long to update these recent chapters. The lack of internet here is so frustrating!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own HoO**

Chapter XV Hazel

Hazel was already having a rotten day – with the crab, the dream/vision, the noodle incident. And then the god popped up. Hazel didn't exactly recognise him, but he couldn't be anything but a god. Mortals – or demigods – didn't just _appear_ on the Argo II with a big flash and a sports car that was not only barely fitting in the space they had, but also glowing. When he only looked about seventeen, eighteen at most. In Hazel's experience, few people owned sport cars when they were eighteen, and even then the sport cars didn't glow.

"Styx, where…" the god started to say. Then he spotted them, all staring at him, stunned, and he frowned. "Where am I?" he asked.

"Er… um… the Argo," stammered a disbelieving Leo. "Who… who are you?"

Nico snapped his fingers. "I know you!" he cried. "You're Apollo!"

Apollo frowned. "Nico di Angelo? Son of Hades? What are you doing here?" Nico clearly wasn't expecting the last question, because he started rambling on about Rome and giants, to Apollo's puzzlement.

"Okay… um, Lord Apollo, what are you doing on the Argo?" Piper asked. "And can you… um, change the sports car to something smaller? It's a bit… cramped in here." She was picking her words carefully, trying not to offend the god.

"Hmm…? Oh, sure." Apollo took out a set of car keys and clicked one of the buttons. The car glowed brightly for a few seconds, then transformed into a much smaller VW Beetle. Hazel's demigod ADHD-ish mind noticed the car plate read MOUNT OLYMPUS, SUN CAR, APOLLO, SECOND MOST AWESOMEST GOD EVER!

"Lord Apollo, what are you doing here?" asked Jason.

"Crash landing, I think," Apollo said. So this wasn't planned. That was could be either good or bad. Hazel just wasn't sure which… yet.

Frank got over his shock and said "Crash-landing?"

"Yeah," Apollo sighed. "Looks like Iceland will have to wait a little longer for dawn and my awesomeness." He somehow made it sound like the worst thing possible – to miss out on his awesomeness.

"So… didn't Jupiter close off Olympus or something?" Hazel ventured.

The god sighed and his image shifted to a sterner – and older – looking person in his twenties, wearing a bright purple toga. Then he shifted back into the younger, normal-clothes form. "Please stop mentioning Roman names, okay? It's hard enough keeping in one form these days. Never mind trying to stay in that form." Piper had mentioned that problem with the gods when she, Jason and Percy met Bacchus in Kansas.

"So… you're like, schizophrenic?" Jason asked.

Apollo shrugged. "More or less, I suppose. It's incredibly annoying. It's even putting me off making haikus! I can't stay in my Greek form for long, and my Roman form doesn't like haikus, so I haven't been making many poems these days." He pouted. Then a sparkle appeared in his eyes. "I can try make one now," he suggested.

Leo missed Nico, who was sitting behind Apollo, violently shaking his head and mouthing _No_, and said "Sure!" Nico looked ready to strangle Leo.

Apollo cleared his throat and began:

"_Oops a crash landing_

_I end up on the Argo_

_Nice chat with half-bloods_"

Hazel now completely understood why Nico had been trying to stop Apollo from a haiku. She didn't think she'd ever heard any poetry that ridiculous, or strange. Not even in the Underworld when she'd been judged, and Shakespeare had sprouted one of his sonnets. That poem had been weird. _This_ poem was ridiculous!

"Uh, great haiku, Lord Apollo," Frank said. He didn't sound very enthusiastic. Hazel didn't blame her boyfriend. The poem was pure _bad_.

Apollo smiled. "Thank you! And now I suppose I should be leaving… hmm, I need to fix the car first. Do you have a larger space?" he asked.

Leo ended up wheeling the sun car, now a motorcycle with the words FORM OF SUN CHARIOT, PROPERTY OF APOLLO, SECOND-MOST AWESOME GOD EVER printed on the plate, to the training room – the largest. Apollo meanwhile took out what seemed to be a user's manual. The 'book' was _How to Fix Your Sun Chariot in All Forms_, by Athena and Hephaestus. Apparently Athena had actually written the book while Hephaestus had supplied all the information. Apollo flipped to a page and began studying it half-heartedly.

Hazel and the other demigods followed Apollo and Leo to the training rooms, then filed in. Coach Hedge took a detour so he could tell Festus about Apollo and what they were doing now.

By the time Coach Hedge got back, Leo was reading Apollo's manual as fast as he could while Apollo was frowning at the sun car – or maybe sun motorcycle. The two of them started to get to work. Leo produced dozens of parts from his tool belt while Apollo circled the motorcycle, looking for what went wrong. In any case, a few seconds later, Leo was fiddling away with the engine. From what Hazel could see, there were bits and pieces flying everywhere, and part of the engine seemed to be on fire. Apollo looked like he was just relaxing, although he was glowing faintly.

After a while, Leo said, "Halfway there," then started talking on in complicated mechanical words that Hazel couldn't understand. From the perplexed looks on everyone else's faces, neither did they. Coach muttered something about Hephaestus' kids and engineering. Leo continued working without explaining his words.

By the time Leo said "Almost finished", the room was boiling hot and the engine was completely on fire, as well as part of the seat and the gas tank. _It's a good thing this is the sun chariot_, Hazel thought. _Otherwise the gas probably would have exploded and the seat completely burned_.

A ringing noise disrupted her thoughts. She glanced around and saw that everyone else looked confused. Then Apollo took out one of those iPhone things and tapped a few buttons. "Hello? This is Apollo," he said.

"Apollo, where are you?" A man's voice floated out.

Apollo winced. "Hey, Dad. I'm…"

The word _Dad_ had caught Jason's attention. Hazel could see him hanging on to every word.

"…busy!"

"Apollo, I didn't ask what you were doing. I asked _where_ you are." Jupiter – Zeus – whichever! said with a hint of exasperation.

"Um… I sort of crash-landed…" stammered Apollo.

"Crash landed." the sky god repeated.

"Yeah, crash landed!" Apollo said, relaxing slightly. "I'm getting my car fixed so Iceland can have some sun soon."

"But Hephaestus is right here. Where are you getting your car fixed?"

Apollo gulped. "Um… a place," he said defensively.

"_Where_ exactly?" the Lord of the Skies inquired.

"Uh… I…"

The sky god sighed. "Where, exactly, are you, Apollo?"

"I… might be on the Argo II with the demigods," Apollo finished in a small voice.

"_What?_"

The king of the gods probably would have given Apollo a sharp talk, but then a lighter voice, a female voice, said, "Apollo, I'm going to eat all of your favourite foods on the table if you don't come back soon!"

Apollo jumped. "Lil' sis? Artemis?"

"Do _not_ call me lil' sis! Are you coming back?"

"Uh, yeah, as sure as I get my car fixed."

"Damn, now I'll have to fight you for the food."

"Artemis, don't swear!" Hazel recognised Juno's voice – or was it Hera talking?

"Sorry, Hera!" Was this what the Olympians called a 'regular' meal? There was way too much bickering for Hazel.

Apollo quickly tapped another few buttons on the iPhone and slipped the iPhone into his pocket. "Phew," he said.

"Done!" Leo announced. He tapped the remaining flames, dousing them. "You might want Dad to do a checkup," he said. "I'm pretty sure it's good, though."

"Thanks." Apollo took the motorcycle, turning it back into a sun car. He climbed in, waved, and slipped the car keys into the ignition. "Close your eyes!" he called.

Hazel quickly obliged as the sun car blazed with golden light. Then there was a searing warmth. When Hazel opened her eyes again, the car was gone. There was a black circle where the car had been, but it was vanishing even as Hazel looked.

"Well, that was fun!" Leo said brightly. He was completely covered in engine oil. "What's next?"

"You need to change," Piper declared, then headed for their living quarters, presumably to get Leo some clean clothes.

Shaking her head, Hazel followed Frank out of the room and the demigods all headed for their cabins.

**What did you think of the haiku? I think that was the right way to do a haiku. Please correct me if I'm wrong!**


	16. Chapter 16: Jason

**I'll be back to the Camp Half-Blood/Roman Legion/Hermes scenario soon. Does anyone have ideas on what Hermes will say to Octavian?**

**Disclaimer: I (sadly) do not own HoO**

Chapter XVI Jason

Jason felt drained after Apollo had left. Both physically and mentally drained. He was exhausted after running back and forth to bring Leo parts Leo had scattered randomly across the ship to fix Apollo's car. Even climbing the stairs was exhausting. And then, of course, his brain was trying to work things out. It seemed Juno was back on Olympus – why, he had no clue. Aphrodite had told Piper Juno was out. He'd heard his dad talk. There was Artemis' 'chat' with Apollo about the food – not really important. What really puzzled Jason was why Neptune – _Poseidon_ hadn't said anything. If the sea god had been on Olympus, shouldn't he have heard where Apollo had been? He'd certainly know what the Argo was, and who the demigods were. And since Piper had told him about Percy… gods, this was _such_ a mess.

Piper, next to him, pushed open a door and shoved Leo in. "Change," she ordered.

Leo went in and closed the door behind him. Jason snapped his mind back to the present.

Frank, Hazel, Nico and Coach Hedge came up the stairs as well. All of them looked exhausted as well. _Like me, I probably look the same_, Jason thought.

A few minutes later, Leo came back out in non-oil-covered clothes. "Better," Piper said.

"What's next?" asked Nico.

"Well, considering it's about noon now and we haven't slept properly last night with Poseidon's storm and all… why don't we go to bed?" Leo suggested.

Jason stared at his friend. "Bed? As in sleep? As in _dreams_?"

Leo rolled his eyes. "Jason, unless you can think of another use for the bed in your cabin, then yes, sleep."

"Except I would rather not have horrible demigod dreams," sighed Nico.

"Bed is really appealing right now though," yawned Frank. "I didn't sleep properly with the storm last night. Horrible dreams, too."

"You'll get more if you sleep, though," Piper pointed out.

"You'll get even more exhausted if you don't," Hazel said.

"I wish we could sleep right now and have a peaceful sleep without dreams," said Leo.

"Leo, you do know how unlikely it is that your wish could happen, right?" asked Jason.

Leo pouted. "Can't someone wish for something? I wish…"

"I wish Gaea was really deeply asleep and giants were non-existent," said Nico wistfully.

That started a chorus of 'I wish' es

"I wish Percy and Annabeth were right here," Hazel said.

"I wish demigod dreams didn't suck so much," sighed Leo.

"I wish... I wish Pan was still here." That from Coach Hedge.

"I wish there were no such things as prophecies," Piper said. "Prophecies are horrible."

Jason agreed completely. It was, after all, a prophecy that started this entire quest – giants, Gaea, Doors of Death…

Frank cleared his throat. "I wish I didn't have to rely on my stick."

Everyone glanced at Jason. He was the only one who hadn't made a wish yet.

"I wish our quest was finished," Jason finally said. "Like, Gaea's asleep again, and the giants are gone, and we're on our way home."

"That would be awesome," Nico agreed. "It would be wonderful."

"Death Boy, it'll be over one way or another in August," said Leo.

"_Death Boy_?"

"Let's hope it goes _our_ way and not Queen Dirt Face's way," Coach Hedge said, breaking up the argument.

Nico glared at Leo. "Not over… _repair boy_."

Jason sighed inwardly. This was not going to be good if they started fighting _each other_. What a mess. He seemed to be thinking that a lot lately.

"Will you guys just stop it with the nicknames?" Piper said crossly. "It won't do any good if you fight each other. Although you might sleep better," she added as an afterthought.

"I would be more of the opinion that they would sleep worse," Hazel said. "They'd probably dream of war and fights which are generally considered bad dreams… I think."

Piper nodded. "Good point, Hazel."

Leo glared at Nico. "It's _supreme commander of the Argo II_, not _Repair Boy_, thanks."

"Repair Boy," everyone chorused in unison, to Leo's clear annoyance.

"Will you stop it with the repair boy? It's supreme commander of the Argo II, alright?"

"Whatever floats your boat, Leo," said Piper.

"Shouldn't that be for Percy and not me?" asked Leo.

"Nope. Currently, _you_ are steering the ship, so currently, _you_ get 'whatever floats your boat'." Piper retorted. Leo groaned.

Jason sighed. "Stop arguing, guys. Are we going to bed or not? Er, HELLO!"

The last part was because Leo and Piper were yelling at each other about some kind of topic that the nearest Jason could figure out was 'English language and its uses' or something like that. It was ridiculous. Jason sighed… again. _Gods help me_, he thought. _I'm doing a lot of things repeatedly recently_. He shook his head to clear his thoughts. It helped… a little.

Finally Coach Hedge produced his loudspeaker and yelled "STOP FIGHTING!" At least, Jason thought it was something like that. The voice that was produced said "Stop" in a really squeaky voice, then "The cow says moo!" and then "Whoo! Fighting!" in a squeal. Jason realised Coach Hedge must have somehow found the loudspeaker he'd used when Jason had been dumped onto the bus by Juno. In any case, it was extraordinarily effective, because both of them stopped fighting and stared at Coach Hedge in disbelief.

"Oo-Kay," Leo said. "What was that? The cow said moo?"

"Just stop fighting, Valdez," Coach sighed.

"Let's go to bed," Hazel said. She steered Piper towards the girls' cabins. Frank dragged Leo towards the boys' cabins.

Coach Hedge vanished down the hallway and Nico headed towards his rooms, leaving Jason alone. Jason entered his own rooms and crashed onto the bed, thinking about the godly conversation again. More specifically, about Percy's father. And about the fact that the sea god hadn't said anything. Of course, Jason hadn't heard anything from Pluto, or Mars, Venus, Mercury, Ceres, Bacchus, Minerva, or Vulcan either, so he couldn't say much. But why hadn't the sea god said anything when he knew perfectly well what had happened to Percy? Or Minerva/Athena, since Annabeth had recovered the Athena Parthenos? Unless… maybe the sea god hadn't been there? But then, where would he be? Under the sea? Planning another storm?

His thoughts in a jumble, Jason fell asleep. Of course, there were only more nightmares.

**This isn't a great chapter but I was rushed! I thought Jason would need some time to think things through and since this is his chapter his thoughts could be in here. Next chapter will contain Jason's dreams and maybe some other stuff and then it'll be back to what's happening at CHB.**


	17. Chapter 17: Jason

**Disclaimer: I do not own HoO**

Chapter XVII Jason

As usual, Jason's dreams sucked.

He was beside Annabeth in a dark blackness he knew was Tartarus. She was keeping guard while Percy was sleeping. Annabeth was saying something, but Jason couldn't make out what she was saying. It sounded something like 'longest day ever'. No duh. Of course days in Tartarus would be long. With endless reforming monsters attacking, any day would feel long.

Then he was beside Percy, who was fully awake. Jason could have sworn that was _wrong_, Percy had been asleep a second ago without even stirring, and Annabeth hadn't moved. But Percy was definitely wide awake and Jason realised _Annabeth_ was sleeping behind him. Weird. And this time he could hear too. Also strange. Percy was saying something to the sleeping Annabeth. The sentence Jason caught was 'this has got to be the longest day of my life'

_One day_! It had been at _least_ three days since they'd left Italy. Why… Then Jason remembered time ran differently in magical places. Or monstrous places. And right now, Percy and Annabeth were in the middle of the biggest – the king, he supposed, if there was a king of monstrous places. Of course time would be different. It was only natural.

He guessed he stayed there for at least half an hour, next to Percy. Then again, with the time differences in monstrous places, he might have stayed there four hours, or ten, or just half a minute. His ADHD-ish mind wondered if there was a Tartarus Mean Time, like GMT, except it would be TMT. Gods, that sounded too much like _TNT_, explosives. Why in Pluto would he be thinking of that right now?

His dream suddenly changed. He was now watching a TV shopping programme. It was flashing CALL 592-9463 FOR YOUR OWN TOOL KIT! Why would he want to buy a tool kit? Maybe it was useful, but Leo had a tool belt that could summon pretty much anything mechanical. Why were his dreams showing this TV ad of a tool kit when it was useless, at least to Jason?

The TV dream dissolved into a riot of purple, pink, yellow and blue. The words CALL NOW flashed their way into Jason's brain. Then the dream reformed… into a place made of white and gold. It made a train station look like a tiny closet. The roof was dark blue with moving constellations. Looking around, Jason saw thirteen very different thrones, all empty. He realised he was probably in the _throne room_ of the gods. That thought freaked him out completely. Jason knew perfectly well Olympus was a dangerous place when all the gods were present, when the entire room was filled with so much power it was incredible the place didn't explode. Percy and Annabeth had spoken about that before. And Jason didn't doubt that if he was discovered here, even if it wasn't eavesdropping or an intended visit, he would probably be blasted to pieces for just being here without warning. He was really glad the gods weren't there right then.

Almost before he'd finished that thought, a voice behind him said, "What are you doing here?"

Jason – or at least his dream self – nearly jumped out of his skin. He turned around, slowly, to find what looked like a twelve-year-old girl in silver looking at him. She had silver eyes, too. Most disturbingly, she had a bow pointed straight at Jason. He didn't know if his dream self could be harmed, but he didn't want to find out.

Jason tried waking up, but it didn't work. Neither did trying to send himself away – he didn't even know if it was possible. So he tried doing the safe thing. "I didn't mean to be here, Lady…" Lady who? There were only five goddesses in the council – Venus, Juno, Diana, Minerva and Ceres. A bow equalled hunting. "Lady Diana," he amended hastily.

The goddess flickered briefly between her forms. "It's Lady Artemis right now," she said, lowering the bow. "Who are you?"

"I'm Jason Grace," said Jason. "Son of Jupiter, praetor of the Twelfth Legion, one of the seven of the prophecy, etc."

Artemis studied him with those silver eyes like the moon. "Thalia's sister?" she finally asked.

"Yes, ma'am." Calling a twelve year old girl ma'am felt strange, but immortals took offence at the slightest things. Better to be safe than sorry.

Artemis slowly nodded. "Yes, I've heard about you. Hera keeps telling Zeus he should re-open Olympus to help you lot. Sadly, Father isn't always… persuadable. Or quick to admit he is wrong."

"I… uh, how are things on Olympus?" Jason winced at that question. One, it was stupid. Two, why would Artemis answer the question anyway?

The goddess frowned. "Shaky," she finally answered after a long pause.

Jason decided she probably wouldn't blast him if he probed a bit further. "Shaky?" he asked.

Artemis sighed. "Boys," she muttered. "Yes, shaky. Hera keeps telling Father to open Olympus again. She's still trying to convince him. Poseidon is tending his underwater kingdom and has been strangely depressed lately. He's even ignored some of Zeus' orders to get back. Hades hasn't been here a lot recently, his kingdom is in chaos with the Doors open. Aphrodite keeps going on about tragic love stories none of us can understand. Ares and Hephaestus are arguing, of course, over Aphrodite, as usual. Hermes is bored out of his mind because he can't do mail. My idiot brother is apologizing to Zeus for the crash landing on your ship. Demeter… she's, well, being Demeter, talking about cereal and its benefits. And Athena… for some reason she doesn't have our form-shifting problems. She hasn't been Minerva for at least four days now, which has got to be a record achievement. But for some reason she's also depressed a lot recently, like Poseidon. Which is weird, because the two of them would try strangle each other if they even are in the same room together. Both of them depressed and not fighting – that is more or less a miracle. And, well, I'm busy with my Hunters. So Olympus is really shaky recently. And there's been a lot more temper tantrums lately, from gods you wouldn't expect. Poseidon's never been exactly calm, but yesterday he practically started yelling at Father for some small thing none of us even had a clue about." She gave a small smile. "We hadn't seen Poseidon get in such a mood for decades. Ares, of course, was delighted."

"Poseidon… he's not on Olympus?"

"He is… or was for the gathering yesterday. Today's hasn't happened yet. Father told him to be here, but Poseidon's always got a rebellious streak, so he could be here, or he could be not here," said Artemis. Then she frowned. "You should probably be waking up now. There's a monster attacking your ship."

Jason's eyes snapped open to screams and the sounds of a monster far below.

**What did you think of Jason's dreams? He's got a full report on Olympus now, as well as knowing that Poseidon has been skipping meetings and being depressed lately. I'm at the CHB chapters next. I haven't completely thought out the monster yet, so if anyone has any ideas please tell me and review!**


	18. Chapter 18: Reyna

**Sorry for lack of updates – no internet! This chapter is when Hermes has a talk with Octavian. Note: some of the events in this part was in Frank's dream earlier on.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own HoO **

Chapter XVIII Reyna

Reyna's mouth was open as she stared at the god of messengers glaring at the augur. She was pressing her binoculars as hard as she could against her eyes, and she was pretty sure the rest of the legion was too. As Reyna briefly glanced at the places where the legion was hiding, she saw the leaders with binoculars- mainly the senators and centurions – gaping, a bit like her, at the god. Reyna swung her binoculars back to the main scene and her eyes focused on something behind Octavian – the two Greeks.

As she watched, the two Greeks gave a hasty bow – wait, a bow? That was just so disrespectful, surely – the Romans always knelt. Of course, the god didn't exactly notice, since his whole attention was completely focused on Octavian.

Over the small rise of the hill, Reyna spotted the first of the Greek Camp-Half Blood campers running up. They stopped a few seconds later when they saw their leaders- Reyna assumed the girl and boy were leaders- moving back down the hill. Two boys came up to the leaders. Wanting to see more, she twisted the dial for a sharper focus and saw that the two boys were identical- and they looked a lot like the children of Mercury at camp. Sons of Hermes, then. The four of them began whispering before moving back down the hill. The entire camp shifted, then seemed to ripple as the news rushed through – that Hermes was at camp. A good many campers – maybe two dozen? – broke off from the main group and moved separately up the slope. Focusing her binoculars, Reyna noticed they all looked like the twin sons of Hermes. Then Reyna remembered the main event and silently chided herself. How in Pluto did she forget about the main event?

Reyna swung her binoculars back and re-twisted the dial to see better. She noticed the god looking incredibly annoyed and Octavian stammering away like mad. "Sorry," seemed to be the gist of what he was saying. In any case, the god did not look too pleased and Reyna suddenly noticed the way the wings on his sandals were fluttering restlessly. Maybe this Luke boy was a touchy subject for Hermes. Reyna stored that information into her mind – possibly she could use this later.

Reyna moved forwards slightly to be able to hear what Octavian was saying. It seemed to mostly be 'sorry' and more 'sorry'. That was slightly surprising – in general, Octavian was not polite, but this was a special occasion, after all – a bit like when Mars had appeared at camp, where of course Octavian instantly started grovelling and scraping to the god.

She moved closer to hear better, and would probably have moved even closer when a silver arrow impaled itself into a place on the tree trunk behind her, and just above her head. Either these Greeks were bad shots or the arrow hadn't been meant to kill. She hoped it was because the Greeks were bad shots, but her mind told her otherwise. It had to be a warning – don't move closer, she guessed.

So Reyna was stuck there not daring to move closer, and just barely able to hear Octavian. Reyna caught a few sentences from Octavian, though. The sentences she caught were:

"Lord Mercury, I'm so sorry, I didn't know."

"I swear Lord Mercury I really didn't know, sorry."

"I promise I'm really sorry!"

"Really, I swear Lord Mercury I'm sorry!"

When Octavian had finally finished his apologies, the god still did not look too happy. Then –_finally! _thought Reyna – he started talking. Reyna was unfortunately not close enough to catch all of it, but she did catch some sentences. Such as:

"First of all, it's Lord _Hermes_ not Mercury thank you very much."

"Secondly, I can tell you are lying. I should know."

"Thirdly, you need some better apologies, because your ones are totally insincere."

"And – "

Reyna didn't catch the rest, but she did get one thing – Lord Hermes was not very happy. She noticed the group of two dozen campers that had split from the main group hanging back, listening. They were smirking with almost identical smirks, and whispering to each other. If they were anything like the sons of Mercury at camp, Reyna would bet all her denarii that they were planning pranks to pull on their fellow campers.

Octavian now looked terrified – well, maybe that was justified. Reyna guessed she wouldn't be too brave either if a god was not pleased with her – and if the god looked ready to blast her. The children of Hermes were now smiling at each other with wicked grins. The two boys who she'd noticed first took something out of their pockets that looked suspiciously like fruit.

Just as Octavian stammered more excuses, or maybe just _before_ Octavian stammered them out, a tomato, two eggs, and a turnip sailed through the air and smashed into his face. One of the eggs just barely missed and got a good amount of yolk onto his hair, while the shell splintered on the rock behind him. The boy who'd thrown the tomato must have been a wicked shot, because the tomato nailed his face. And the tomato must have been totally rotten, because it burst apart upon contact, spraying the watery contents of a tomato on Octavian's face.

The look on Octavian's face was absolutely _priceless_. Reyna could barely contain her laughter, and everyone who disliked Octavian at camp must have been on the ground clutching their sides, because several of the bushes around her rustled slightly. Getting herself back under control, Reyna looked through her binoculars again.

Octavian looked indignant, furious and outraged all at the same time. He glared behind the god, at the children of Hermes, who were on the ground rolling with laughter and clutching their sides. Tears were streaming down their faces and they seemed to be half-choking with laughter. That made Reyna lose some of her self-control again, because they looked so funny. And that was before she noticed the video camera next to one of the boys, obviously recording the incident.

Hermes looked behind him with a disapproving look, but the disapproving look vanished when he saw his sons and daughters behind him. Instead, he actually smiled broadly.

"Nice one, Travis," he called to the boy who'd thrown the tomato. "Did you get it on tape?"

The boy called Travis grinned and nodded back enthusiastically, while his twin brother pressed a button on the video camera and yelled, "This is going on YouTube if you want to see it, Dad! Our accounts, by the way, are _TheUltimatePranksterTwins1Tr avis _and _TheUltimatePranksterTwin2Con nor_, in case you wanted to know." Then, looking at Octavian, he added, "Sorry, couldn't help it. The camp mood has been so sombre for so long we just had to have some fun."

Hermes now frowned. Obviously, then, he cared for his children. "Why has the camp mood been so sombre these days?" he asked.

Travis sighed. "Ask Poseidon," he said sadly. "Or maybe Athena, I don't think it matters too much… not really."

Hermes frowned again. "I will," he said.

Okay, this was getting a bit weird for Reyna's taste. Surely Hermes appearing, and all that before him, hadn't been one giant, elaborate prank by the Hermes kids? If it was, the Roman legion would need to implant some rules before the children of Mercury copied them.

Octavian might have just reached the same conclusion in that small brain of his. "This wasn't a big prank, right?" he asked the children of Hermes. They just grinned.

"We're not going to tell, teddy-slayer," teased one son of Hermes.

_Teddy-slayer_? What kind of nickname was that? Although, it was true, sort of…

"Chris, imagine what would happen if Clovis was introduced to him," said Travis.

"We gotta try it!" cried Travis' twin brother.

The Hermes kids whooped and half of them raced down the slope, probably to get the poor Clovis kid.

Octavian glared at the rest of the Hermes kids. "Who's Clovis?" he asked.

"A son of Hypnos," answered Travis.

"Who loves sleeping and teddy bears," his twin brother added.

"He's going to love you."

Hermes grinned at his kids. "I'll be off now, before Zeus decides to fry the camp because I was here. Oh, and don't forget these rules: Steal as much as you can, throw rotten fruit, and, hmm, don't let Clarisse catch you for the rubber prank."

_The rubber prank_? What was this Greek camp really like?

The twin sons of Hermes nodded. "We'll remember, Dad!" they called out.

Hermes smiled at his sons and vanished in a shower of golden light.

**Sorry if you thought the rotten fruit part was random, it just popped into my head. I thought it would be nice for the camp to have some fun after Percy and Annabeth vanished off the face of the earth (literally). Please tell me if I'm mistaken, but I think I've just broken the 20K mark!**


	19. Chapter 19: Reyna

**I'm really sorry for not updating – I've been moving to Australia… There's no internet at my house yet (I blame Hermes) and I've been pretty busy trying to find a school (Blame Athena) etc etc.**

**Thanks for all the reviews.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own HoO… since I'm about 120% sure Rick Riordan does not live in Australia.**

Chapter XIX Reyna

Reyna was watching the Greeks, torn between two things.

On one hand, she was supposed to be a loyal Roman soldier, which included helping comrades, sharing, being unselfish and the rest. That would mean rescuing (or at least trying to rescue) Octavian. Then, on the other hand, Octavian was hardly the ideal example of a 'loyal Roman soldier'. He wasn't exactly comradely – more of a coward, really. She'd had differences – heck, a lot of differences – with him. And, of course, he'd stabbed Gwen. That was _really_ not comradely.

While the Greek children of Hermes busied themselves with Octavian and this 'Clovis' kid, Reyna made a split second decision. Not rescue… yet, anyway. If things turned ugly, then yes. But right now Reyna was more curious than anything and Pluto did she want to see what was going to happen. More than… well, almost anything in the world.

Reyna quietly took out a specially made radio transmitter that was specifically made to not attract monsters. She was half-convinced technology existed just to rile demigods. In any case, Reyna whispered her orders into the transmitter and waited for the response.

It didn't take long. After about five seconds, Senator Larry's voice came out of the device. "We received your orders, praetor." Then there was a pause before Larry's voice continued, with a hint of a smirk in his voice, "This is gonna be fun."

A few minutes after the sending, the children of Hermes who'd been sent for this Clovis guy came back, dragging a guy who looked like a baby calf, with a tuft of blonde hair. Reyna privately thought the guy wouldn't have been able to do more than lift his pillow. She went for a better view – and her jaw dropped. Unless the binoculars were really wrong, or something like that, the kid was _sleeping_!

Reyna wished she had a sound amplifier to hear the sentences they were saying, but no such luck. So she just resorted to watching them.

As she watched, the kids who'd dragged the baby cow guy up the slope converged on Octavian. He barely had time to yell – although she was ninety per cent sure they didn't intend harming him. Reyna did want to see what was happening, though… but of course, no luck. Perhaps Fortuna wasn't on their side today.

When the scuffling stopped and the dust cleared, Reyna's mouth dropped open. Octavian was now standing in front of a rough stone slab, although where they'd gotten _that_ Reyna had no idea, and she wasn't sure if she wanted to know. He had been _completely_ disarmed – even his sleeves, which used to droop slightly because of the concealed knives, weren't drooping any more. His _pilum_ had already shattered, thanks to the daughter of the sky god, and his _gladius_ was sticking upright out of the ground – a Hermes kid had clearly thrown it away from Octavian. Octavian's knives were randomly strewn in the high grass – that could be dangerous, someone might step on it. The tall grass would have been a good place to hide in, except there could have been anything, from bombs to poisonous snakes – why not? hidden in there. So Reyna had forbidden them from entering the tall grass, not totally anyway, and to be on high alert. Reyna also noticed several other things about, and around, Octavian.

One: Octavian was wearing a weird shirt. He was still covered in armour from the waist down, but instead of armour he had a strange shirt on top instead.

Two: there were several teddy bears on the slab.

Three: he was holding a slim knife that Reyna guessed might just be sharp enough to mutilate a teddy bear, but not nearly sharp enough to wound someone.

Four: there was a video camera, with Travis Stoll – at least, she _thought_ it was him, it could have been Connor, ready to go, to tape probably what was going to happen next.

Five: the Clovis kid, son of whoever-she-forgot, was still sleeping, but Reyna guessed he wouldn't be for much longer. Gods, the kid had more than half a dozen Hermes kids trying their best to wake him up.

Six: a daughter of Hermes was pickpocketing Octavian. She was 'rewarded' with a couple of denarii.

And Seven: all the Hermes kids were grinning wickedly. Reyna had seen those looks before.

The same looks the Mercury kids had, more or less, before they pulled off a prank that sent a cohort of camp chasing after the prankster.

After about ten minutes of repeated slapping, yelling, and cold water thrown onto his face, Clovis finally woke up. He started when he saw all the Hermes kids grinning evilly at him, then started more when he saw whichever-twin-it-was-she-didn't-care with the video camera. Then he spotted Octavian.

Reyna guessed Octavian had been forced to do what happened next, because unless the Octavian she knew had been abducted by some monster, he would have never obeyed a bunch of Greeks. Of course, he was outnumbered here, and pretty much defenceless, so…

In any case, Reyna watched as the kid Clovis stared at Octavian, who was doing his favourite thing – although it was probably the first time he'd been forced to do it by Greeks. Slaughtering teddy bears and harmless stuffed animals. The children of Hermes were grinning wickedly.

Clovis continued staring at Octavian doing his Auger thing. Although, he wasn't bothering to read the entrails. He was just disembowelling teddy bear after teddy bear in a practised, robotic way. The poor kid was turning paler and paler.

Then Octavian reached for a brown teddy bear with a black patch. Which was probably a fatal mistake.

Clovis screamed. The word 'no' echoed around the valley, a high-pitched scream of rage.

Clovis tackled Octavian to the ground, saving the teddy bear. Reyna would have bet everything that the kid wasn't a fighter, more a… sleeper, but Clovis, enraged, was obviously dangerous. He easily disarmed Octavian and started savagely attacking him… with nothing, at least nothing Reyna could see. Possibly a belt knife or something? Octavian didn't seem to be too hurt, not at all, but the way the son of who-was-the-god-again? Somnus? Or rather, Hypnos? The son of Hypnos, yes. The way the son of Hypnos attacked… it was a good thing he had no weapons. It was such a savage style – not Greek, Roman or Amazon or any style Reyna knew, in fact – that she would be pretty surprised if Octavian would be able to totter out of the melee if the son of Hypnos had been carrying any weapon.

"All right! Cut!" yelled the Stoll at the camera.

The other twin brought his hand down in a slicing motion, and the children of Hermes converged on Octavian again. Within minutes, half a dozen of them had separated Clovis from Octavian and had given Clovis the teddy he'd saved, at which point Clovis instantly fell asleep again. Another four of the Hermes kids dragged Clovis back through the Greek camp.

Octavian meanwhile changed back into his proper armour while the children of Hermes bustled around, clearing off that slab, saving the recording, all the while watching Octavian carefully – despite the fact that he was completely unarmed. Oh, well.

After a while, the rest of the Greeks came back into sight. Reyna spotted Thalia and Will among them, and realised if it was going to become a fight, it would be a pretty long one.

This was going to be one Tartarus of a day.

**What did you think of that and the 'prank' the Hermes kids recorded? Please review!**


	20. Chapter 20: Reyna

**No internet (It's all Hermes' fault) yet… it should be arriving next week or something. And I'm still busy (ish) sorting out my stuff. **

**Anyway… anyone got good ideas on what happens after Jason and the rest fight off the monster? PM/Review it, it might be included.**

**Disclaimer: I'm getting bored of this. No I do not own HoO (duh)**

Chapter XX Reyna

Reyna was surprised, to say the least, when, after a brief discussion and some chat with the others, the Greek children of Hermes packed up the video camera, collected the teddies Octavian hadn't managed to slaughter, and threw Octavian out. They moved around in a practised, efficient way, as if they'd done this before. Maybe they had. Reyna had no clue what pranks the lot had pulled… probably they'd tricked loads before Octavian.

The Greeks were very efficient, more than Reyna had suspected. At least, the pranksters were. They had efficiently packed up the video camera, efficiently moved the slab and retrieved their teddy bears, and then three-quarters of them had moved back down the hill. The rest of them picked up Octavian's knives, tucking them into their sleeves, sheaths, belts. Then they picked up _Octavian_, dragged him to the edge of the hill, next to the dragon – the dragon! What demigod camp would have a dragon, even as protector – dumped him on the ground just to the right of the pine tree, and rolled him off the hill before sprinting back to their camp, laughing.

Several legionnaires rushed out, after making sure the coast was clear, to catch Octavian as he rolled/bounced down the hill, covered in grass and a fair bit of mud. The evening sunlight flickered across Octavian's face. With a start, Reyna realised it was about eight, half eight maybe. She hadn't realised it was this late already. How long _had_ Octavian's fight with Thalia, Hermes' visit, and the prank lasted? Surely not two hours? Reyna couldn't have lost her sense of time so fast, right? She wasn't so sure, but, just maybe, it actually had been two hours.

Anyway, Reyna guessed it was too late for an invasion, now. Sure, they could stay and invade at night, which Octavian had proposed to the Senate for a mass slaughter, but all the senators had overruled. The principal reason was that the senators wanted a fair fight to prove Romans really were better than Greeks. A fair fight would need the Greeks to be awake. Of course, the senators hadn't overruled on Reyna's tactics. Most of those tactics involved pretending. Pretending to invade at night to keep the Greeks on alert, and therefore to make them more tired during the day. Things like that. According to the senators, that didn't count as 'dirty', which Reyna wasn't sure whether she agreed or not. They said it was simply 'tactics'. Reyna didn't argue too hard.

In any case, they could use tonight as another night of planning. Even though Octavian wasn't the best warrior, or the guy who followed orders properly, he still knew what to do in case of capture, or if he was allowed in. Look around, see as much as possible, memorise the layout of the camp, things like that, for better planning of attacks later. Hopefully, Octavian had remembered to take a good look around the place. Reyna wouldn't have put it past him to 'forget' the instructions just to rile her.

Reyna got up from her position in the bushes and winced internally at the cramps. Shocking what two hours of crouching could do. A lot. She could see several other legionnaires stretching and walking around in circles to get rid of the cramps.

The legionnaires who'd caught Octavian started walking towards her. Octavian himself was pacing back and forth, no doubt annoyed at why the legion hadn't saved him. As if he'd been in real danger. If he had, the legion would have saved him. If he'd been out of sight, the legion would have attacked too. Neither of those things had happened, so naturally the legion had decided to stay out of sight.

The legion started to move. Back to where they were staying – or rather, camping. Reyna had moved the legion to a stretch of land closer to the _graecus_ camp some days ago.

It took the legion less than half an hour to march back to their campsite. The legion immediately split into cohorts, with the cohorts then splitting into groups of three or four and going into their tents. The Fifth cohort had the south side, the Third the north. The Fourth and Second Cohorts were both camped on the west side, the largest. And the First had the east. Reyna's own tent was in the center, with the senators and Octavian's.

The senators filed in to the command tent with Octavian, guessing correctly Reyna wanted a meeting. Reyna herself entered last. When she was in, the senators already had the maps out. The maps were pretty much ancient, and she doubted the camp was still modelled like that. Octavian's 'capture' might well prove useful.

Of course, Octavian complained first, about the legion failing to rescue him, etc, etc. Reyna had to explain – again! – the policy. Then, thank the gods, the real work began.

Picking up the first map, Octavian said, "I wasn't able to see that much so far away, but I did see this much." He pointed at the U-shape of cabins. "There seemed to be a lot more cabins than that. Either the Greeks had too many people in their cabins, or other gods got cabins." From the ancient sources, the Romans had learned there were twelve cabins for the twelve Olympians, although Juno's – _Hera's_ – was empty because she didn't have children, and so was Artemis', except when her fabled Hunters came to stay. Reyna weren't sure whether they were real or not. No Roman had ever joined it, so they'd never gotten proof it existed.

"There were more cabins?" a senator enquired. "How many, and why?"

Octavian shrugged. "I don't know why, maybe they had too many people, but I did see that the U-shape was a full rectangle."

Another senator marked extra cabins on their maps.

"The arena is actually here," said Octavian, pointing at a spot slightly above and left of the arena on their maps. "The armoury, I couldn't make out. And there seemed to be some kind of climbing wall here," he said, gesturing.

So he hadn't seen the armoury. That was a shame, they could have dropped rocks on it or something so the Greeks couldn't get weapons.

"Anything else?" asked Larry.

"Yes, their forest is actually a huge mass of nymphs – dryads and naiads and such. I could actually _see_ the trees shifting, so the forest is basically unmappable."

Reyna wasn't sure if unmappable was even a word, but she continued listening.

"Their creek runs this way," Octavian said, marking the route on a map. "And I could see a huge rock structure. It looked like a pile of deer droppings, to be honest."

"A pile of poop?" asked a senator. "We can name that the Poop Pile. Why would the Greeks have a rock Poop Pile?"

Reyna could ask the same question. If the Romans had a Poop Pile, they would blow it to shreds with dynamite. It wouldn't have been a glorious structure, so they could blow it to smithereens.

The sky rumbled. Reyna suddenly realised that every time they'd said 'Poop Pile', thunder had sounded. Although she couldn't for the life of her figure out why Jupiter was angry, she quickly changed the subject by prodding Octavian to say more while Larry marked the 'Poop Pile'.

"The big house was right where they marked it, complete with weathervane and all. And…"

Reyna and the senators continued listening to Octavian, and they planned tactics far into the night.

**Sorry to anyone who wanted to see Romans fighting Greeks this chapter, I seem to have difficulty with fighting chapters. I'll try have a chapter of fighting in the next CHB/CJ set, somewhere around Chapter 29. Anyone who guesses why the sky god was mad when the Romans said 'Poop Pile' correctly (send answers by review) gets a cookie! Hint Hint: Demigod Files.**

**Please review!**


	21. Chapter 21: Jason

**Cookies! **

**(::) (::) for rrfanman and Thalia Bolt, who got it correctly: 'Poop Pile' is actually Zeus' Fist! **

**This is back to the Argo crew, who are currently fighting a monster. Time: currently about noon or so on the third day in Leo's 3-5 days.**

**Disclaimer: no, I do not own HoO. **

Chapter XXI Jason

Jason started awake from his dream-conversation with Artemis to hear shrieking and yells of surprise. He instantly jumped out of bed and snatched up his sword. Jason felt a little dazed, though, as if the goddess was inside his head or something.

_Delphi_, a voice whispered inside his head. _Go to Delphi_.

Was it Artemis, trying to tell him something? Jason wasn't sure. He dismissed the voice, not knowing what it meant. He would discuss it later, after whatever-it-was that was attacking the ship was driven off.

The Argo II lurched wildly and there was a yell Jason recognised as Leo's. "Oh for gods sake!" yelled Leo. "These bees are crazy!"

_Bees?_

Jason rushed out and up onto the deck – to be confronted by _the_ bizarre scene.

Leo was wrestling with the wheel, spinning it back and forth as he ducked and wove.

Piper was slashing away with Katoptris.

Coach Hedge was wielding his club, smashing away.

Nico, Hazel and Frank fought in a cluster, slashing and stabbing.

The weird thing? They were fighting… nothing! At least, nothing Jason could see. Did all his friends just go mad? Or did he just go mad? This was _the_ weird scene.

"Jason!" yelled Piper. "Do something! Get rid of those bees!"

Leo grunted as he continued fighting with the wheel.

"Do what?" Jason called back. "I can't see anything!"

"You can't see those bees?" shouted Coach Hedge. "Piper! Watch it!"

His girlfriend turned too late and yelped as nothing – _something_ – sliced away part of her jacket, leaving a rather nasty green bump on her shoulder.

That focused it for Jason. His eyesight blurred and refocused – to see seven giant bees hovering in the air, their stings pointed like wasps, and dive-bomb themselves at his friends.

One of the bees spotted him and dived towards him. He ducked and slashed like his friends were doing, at the bee. It buzzed away angrily, then dived again.

Jason ducked again, trying a stab at the bee, barely missing the end of its sting. For the first time, he saw the sting properly.

It was at least as long as his palm, maybe longer. There were needle-sharp hairs coating every bit of it. And, worst of all, Jason saw an alien greenish liquid on it. It was at least poison, maybe worse. And he could guess: it was deadly.

The creature shot towards him again, and he slashed: a brutal, non-refined slash. It had absolutely no finesse to it. But, for some weird reason, it hit the bee, drawing a long score across its body. Long, but unfortunately for Jason, it was shallow, and all it did was make the bee angrier. By a lot.

The bee tucked in its wings and surged towards him. He ducked and sidestepped, but the edge of its left wing grazed him. Jason realised its wings were tough, as tough as leather, and it hurt when it hit.

The giant bee came back, buzzing angrily. Jason managed to get a cut on the bee's body, next to the slash he had already made. He wasn't sure what these were, monsters certainly, but also certainly Gaia's. He also wasn't sure how many scratches it would need to get defeated.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Hazel pick up a scratch. Jason heard a hiss of wind and ducked reflexively, just as the bee swooped over his head.

_One bee for each of us_, his mind thought. _Definitely Gaia. But why now?_

_This is going on too long. I need to end this, fast. How?_

As the bee came in for his next shot, Jason did an all-or-nothing move.

Jason summoned the winds and rose until he was the same height as the bee, his sword in front of him, a second before the bee would have smacked into him and probably have sent him over the side of the ship. Instead, the monster's head impaled itself on his Imperial Gold sword.

There was a sickening _crack! _and Jason winced slightly as the beast's skull shattered. The giant bee dropped from the air, dragging his sword with it. Jason couldn't tug his sword free from that huge weight, so he dropped with it.

The giant bee fell onto the deck, disintegrating even as it fell. Jason retrieved his sword and looked around, wondering how his friends were doing.

Piper seemed to be holding her own against her giant bee, and Nico, Frank and Hazel were doing OK, with one bee down and two to go. Coach Hedge was alright as well.

Jason glanced at Leo and saw that Leo was _not_ alright. Leo was trying to steer the ship _and_ fight the bee, and that proved to be a difficult job. Leo had picked up a number of scratches, although the bee was black all over.

Jason ran to help Leo, scratching Leo's bee as he ran. "Focus on the steering, man!" yelled Jason. "I'll deal with your bee!"

Leo nodded, frantically spinning the wheel. Jason could hardly guess how many kilometres they were off-course. Probably a lot.

Jason got an opening as the bee buzzed past his head again. He stabbed his sword straight up, into the body of the monster. It instantly turned to powder and disintegrated.

"How badly are we off course?" Jason asked Leo.

"Very badly," Leo answered, turning the wheel. "We're about one, two hundred kilometres from _Athens_, and that is _way _off course. We might be set back a few hours or so by this. Go help Piper!"

Piper was at that minute stabbing at the bee. Jason ran to help and within seconds the bee was gone.

They looked around. Nico was dispatching the last of the bees in his group even as Jason watched, and Coach brought his club down with an almighty _SMASH_ on the bees head. They were all gone.

After they'd treated themselves with nectar and ambrosia for their wounds, they gathered in the dining hall, waiting for Leo who'd gone to set the ship back on course.

When he came back, he looked grim. "We are pretty badly off course, about one hundred kilometres away from Athens, which is about as far as we can get in Greece away from the House of Hades. I'm going to blame the storm and the bees. In any case," said Leo, taking out the holographic map, "we'll be set back by four, five hours. Right now, we are here."

He pointed at a spot not far away from Athens on the map and then pointed to Epirus. "It's the reason Gaia sent the bees right then. To steer us off course. I'm sure it was Gaia. Aren't bees her sacred animal or something?"

Piper nodded. "The bee, the serpent and the pig are all her sacred animals. I think there might be more but I can't remember them."

"So," continued Leo. "We need to set course for the north-west. Epirus is here. We are here." He sighed. "If we make it by noon on day five, I'll consider that a miracle. Everything would still be on course. Although, now I think about it, we probably don't need three days at the Doors…"

Jason glanced at the map again. Delphi. That was what the voice he was almost certain was Artemis' had told him. And he remembered that Delphi was an oracle – wasn't that what Rachel had said? She was the host of the spirit of the Oracle of Delphi or something?

"Where's Delphi?" Jason asked Leo.

Leo shrugged. "It's here somewhere," he said, pointing at a spot that was along their way to Epirus.

It was along their way. That meant they wouldn't have to deter. Just one or two hours lost at the place. And why would they need to go there? Of course, that was what Artemis' voice had said. They probably _should_ go there.

Taking a deep breath, Jason said, "Leo? We need to go to Delphi."

Everyone stared at him. "Why?" asked Nico.

Jason started explaining his dreams to them. "Well, I dreamt…"

**What did you think of the bee attack? There'll probably be a prophecy soon, either next chapter or the one after that. Please review! And how do you think I should do the Delphi thing?**

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	22. Chapter 22: Frank

**This chapter is a bit of a filler because I need Jason to explain his dreams. The heroes will probably land in Delphi at the end of this…**

**Time: about half past one, third day.**

**Course: Delphi**

**Disclaimer: I do not own HoO.**

Chapter XXII Frank

Frank did not like the way his day was going. Two monster attacks in a day was definitely bad. (**A/N this is still the same day when they fought the crab)** The bee sting he'd received definitely wasn't good either. He'd gotten it fixed with some ambrosia and nectar though. Now, they were off course. Very badly off course. And now Jason was saying they needed to go to some Oracle place. Frank was pretty sure he wouldn't like this Oracle, whatever/ whoever it was. He focused back on the conversation. It was pretty disturbing news, the Olympians' news.

"Olympus itself is really shaky, the tempers are flaring," said Jason. "Lady Artemis said that there were loads of arguments going around the place. But, well, the news that really worries me isn't that."

"Then what is it?" asked Leo. He'd been pretty badly stung too, although he was alright now. "What really worries you, Jason?"

Nico sighed. He was a good fighter, better than Frank had expected. Frank wondered if Camp Jupiter knew Nico was this good.

"Let me guess, Jason," said Nico. "It's about Uncle P."

"Uncle P.?" echoed Piper. "Who's Uncle P.?"

"Well, he isn't technically your uncle, Piper," said Nico, "since you're not a child of Zeus or Hades. I'm talking about Poseidon. That's what you're worried about, right Jason?"

Jason looked surprised, but he nodded. "Yeah, Poseidon. According to Artemis, he's been, uh, _depressed_ lately. I can understand that, but the thing is, he hasn't even turned up for some Council meetings, which for me anyway is, uh, worrying."

Nico looked thoughtful. "I can understand depressed. He lost his favourite son to the abyss. As for Council meetings, well…" He trailed off, frowning to himself.

"How do you know so much about Olympian councils?" asked Piper. Frank was pretty sure she didn't really like Nico. At the least, she didn't trust him.

"I've been to one," answered Nico indifferently. "They're dangerous places to be in, and most of the time it's just arguing, but important matters are discussed in them."

Frank's eyes widened. Nico had never said he'd been to an Olympian council! That felt so unfair.

Hazel raised her eyebrows. "You've been to a council?" she asked. "That's so not fair."

Nico sighed. "Hazel, trust me, you do not want to be at the Council of the Gods. It's insane in there. All the yelling doesn't help," he added.

"What do they yell about?" asked Leo, obviously over the quarrel they'd had a few hours ago.

Nico gave a wry smile. "What do they argue about? The silliest things. If we survive this quest, you might be 'lucky' enough to attend one," he said. "Favourite arguments between my dad and uncles are along the lines of 'Mother Rhea liked you best' and 'Air disasters are better than sea disasters'. Apollo and Artemis argue about Apollo flirting with the Hunters. Hera argues with Zeus about being a… a womanizer or something? I never paid much attention to it. Dad and Demeter then argue about cereal and Persephone, which they have done for centuries now, and Ares and Hephaestus argue over Aphrodite. Dionysus either snores in his throne, reads a wine magazine or drinks – although, he isn't allowed to drink now. Hermes deals with the mail. Oh, and Poseidon and Athena argue about Athens and Medusa," he added.

"All the time?" asked Frank, a little skeptical.

"Well, maybe not all the time. Just, oh, ninety per cent of the time," said Nico. "But anyway, Jason, what else about Poseidon?"

Jason blinked. "Artemis said he was, sulking or something under the sea?" he said.

Nico frowned. "That's not like him. What about Athena?"

"Artemis said Athena has also been really depressed," said Jason.

"The goddess of wisdom can get depressed?" asked Leo.

Hazel rolled her eyes. "Of course, Leo."

Frank could tell Nico wasn't listening. "What are you thinking, Nico?" Frank prodded.

"I'm thinking it's odd," answered Nico. "Poseidon and Athena absolutely hate each other. If Poseidon was cheerful, Athena would make sure she wasn't cheerful, even if she'd just received great news. So if Poseidon was _down_, Athena would be, uh, bubbly? Bubbly and happy even if something really bad happened. They can't stand feeling the same emotions as each other."

"Nico, the way you say it makes it sound like they're in love," laughed Piper.

Nico froze. "What! I didn't mean that! They hate each other!" Then, in a quieter voice, he added, "The day they stop hating each other is the day Persephone stops hating me and showers me with gifts."

"Why does Persephone hate you?" Frank asked, puzzled.

Nico sighed. "That's for me to know, and, hopefully, you to never find out," he answered.

"Okay, we're getting off topic," announced Coach Hedge, giving them all a start. Coach had been so uncharacteristically quiet they'd all but forgotten him.

"Coach, almost forgot you existed," said Leo with a smile.

Coach Hedge glared at Leo. "Let's get back on topic, Leo. Jason, what else did Artemis say?"

Frank noticed at the word 'Artemis' Coach Hedge's eyes took on a slightly dreamy look. That… couldn't mean what he thought it meant, right…?

"I'm going to go research Delphi," decided Hazel. "Nico, Frank, tell me later, 'kay? I have a feeling if we're going to an oracle we need to know what to do."

Nobody denied Hazel didn't have good instincts, so Frank ended up accompanying Hazel to her cabin. "Do you think Piper dislikes your brother?" asked Frank in a quiet voice.

Hazel was silent for a while. "I don't know about dislike, but I know she's always been a bit frosty to him. She wasn't exactly family-close to Percy either, although she was pretty close with Annabeth. I don't know, maybe she just takes time before giving out her trust or something."

"Yeah, I suppose," said Frank. "What do you think we'll need to do at Delphi?"

Hazel gave him a light kiss. "That's what I'm going to find out. You better go now, before they start wondering what you're doing."

Frank smiled and headed back towards the meeting. As it happened, Nico was arguing with Piper.

"What's going on?" Frank asked Leo.

Leo shrugged. "Wish I could tell you, man, but all I know is that they've gone insane."

Frank looked at Jason, who shook his head. "Search me," he said.

Nico and Piper continued arguing.

Frank cleared his throat. "Okay, why are you guys arguing?" he asked.

"She started it," scowled Nico.

"Don't be ridiculous, death breath. You did," said Piper.

Nico's face darkened. "Don't call me that," he said icily. "You don't have the right to."

"Then who does?" demanded Piper.

Nico glared at her. He stayed silent for a while, and just when Frank thought he wouldn't answer, Nico said, "Pinecone Face and Fish Breath."

_Pinecone Face? Fish Breath? _thought Frank. _What the Pluto?_

Apparently Piper had the same thought. "Who in Tartarus are Pinecone Face and Fish Breath?" she asked.

"Who in Tartarus," repeated Nico. "As it happens, one is in Tartarus. The other, probably hunting."

"And they are?" said Piper. Frank could have face-palmed. He hadn't thought of Piper as _this_ inconsiderate!

Nico stared at her. "My cousins. Thalia. Percy."

Piper stared back and they probably would have continued arguing if the loudspeaker hadn't crackled to life overhead. "Delphi," it said in a metallic voice. "Delphi."

Leo sprinted into the engine room and hit the controls. A second later, Frank felt a jolt in his stomach.

"Landing. Landing."

There was a sudden bump. Hazel came out, going up to him. "I found some stuff on Wiki about Delphi," she said.

"That's good," answered Frank. "I think we're here."

A few minutes later, Leo came back out of the engine room. "Ladies and gentlemen," he announced. "Welcome to… Delphi."

**Sorry if I was a bit mean with Piper, she'd never been one of my favourite characters. She'll improve, I think. I just don't think she trusts Nico very much. **

**There'll probably be a prophecy next chapter, for the Doors of Death. **


	23. Chapter 23: Frank

**Thank you to everybody who reviewed! I **_**still**_** do not have broadband at home – apparently the company got our address wrong so we still have to wait ANOTHER THREE**_** WORKING **_**WEEKS (Basically a month)! That's going to be really frustrating for me.**

**audrey199 – It might be a bit difficult to do Lazel, because Leo did promise Frank in MoA to not try and steal Hazel. I'll see what I can do.**

**fairygazelle092 - sorry but there won't be any Piper POVs in my book. You see, I'm only doing Roman POVs. Sorry!  
**

**Time: two o'clock, third day.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own HoO.**

Chapter XXIII Frank

Frank rushed above deck with Hazel and the others to see themselves landing on a rocky mountainsideish slope. It didn't look very important or imposing to Frank, and certainly not what he expected an Oracle to be like. It was pretty cold, too, on the slope.

Frank wrapped his jacket around Hazel as they got off the Argo. "Th – Thanks," she said, shivering with the cold.

"You're welcome," said Frank as he looked around the place. "This is Delphi?"

"Uh-huh," said Leo. "Festus was pretty sure about that, although if this gives us prophecies I'll eat the Argo."

Coach Hedge snorted. "If you swear that on the Styx you'll end up eating the Argo, you know that? This is the original site of the Oracle of Delphi, sacred to Apollo, et cetera, et cetera. I wouldn't be too surprised if we get a prophecy here."

"Yeah, about that," said Jason. "What do we do to get a prophecy?"

Nico shrugged. "If this was Rachel I'd just ask her, but since she's somewhere in camp and not here, I don't have a clue."

Everyone turned to Hazel, since she had been the one to research Delphi. "Well?" asked Piper. "What do we do for a prophecy, Hazel?"

Hazel shifted uncomfortably. "Well, according to Wiki, in Ancient Greek times, the priestess would sit on a crack in the rock – a really big crack in the rock – and then she'd get prophecies. It wasn't very clear or anything, but apparently she'd speak unintelligible words and then the priests of Delphi would translate them or something."

"Oo-kay…," said Leo. "So we go searching for a great big crack in the rock now?"

Hazel shrugged. "Pretty much."

"Let's split," said Jason. "We'd be able to find the place quicker. I'll go with Piper. Leo, go with Nico and Coach. Frank, you go with Hazel."

Frank nodded. "So, if one group finds the place, how do they alert the others?" he asked.

"That's easy," said Leo. "I'll send off a huge fireball if we find it. Jason can do lightning. And Frank, you can turn into something and fly over to tell us."

"Good idea," said Hazel, giving Leo a smile. "That way, we can all gather quickly if we find it."

"But what about the Argo?" asked Nico. "We can hardly leave it here, right? At least, not unguarded. Gaia or one of her minions could destroy it if nobody guarded it."

Jason frowned. "I hadn't thought of that," he admitted. "How about one group stays to guard the ship while the other two search?"

Piper put her head on Jason's shoulder. "That's a good idea, Sparky," she said. "But I think we'd all have to listen to the prophecy when we find the place. So if we leave a group here, it'd have to be a group that can move fast, if we want to all listen to it."

That made sense, too. But Frank had no idea how that would work. The group would have to be able to teleport or something.

"I know!" said Leo. "Me, Nico and Coach will stay on the ship. If you guys find it, Nico can shadow-travel us to the place. Can you do that, Nico?" he added.

Nico was nodding. "That's not bad. I think I'd be able to do that. And if we get into trouble, Leo can send a fireball or something to call you guys. What do you think, Coach?"

"Well, I'd prefer to be searching," admitted Coach Hedge. "Humans can't get onto some paths."

That also made sense. There was no doubt some paths were going to be narrow. Fauns could probably get on them easier than demigods.

"How about you go with us?" said Hazel. "That way, Jason and Piper will search, Coach, Frank and I will search, and Leo and Nico can guard ship. It'd be easier for Nico to transport just himself and one other person anyway."

"I like that," said Nico. "Hazel, you're a genius."

Hazel smiled. "Thanks, Nico. We better get searching now. I'd like to get this prophecy before the sun goes down."

Jason and Piper turned right. Frank, Hazel and Coach turned left.

It was hard work. At one point the path was so narrow they had to go in single file. After that, there was a path only Coach could fit onto. Frank ended up turning into a falcon and flying up the path while Hazel grew diamonds to help her fit on the path. They also woke up a _dracaena_, which Frank ended up vaporising. He had no idea why the monster was so high up in the first place. Once, the path snaked between two outcrops of rock that made it impossible to continue walking along the path, so Frank turned into a giant eagle and Coach and Hazel climbed aboard. Frank made sure to fly really high so they could get a proper bird–eye view. The scenery was breathtaking, although they didn't pay it too much attention.

Eventually, Frank dropped down. None of them had seen anything even close to a large dark crack in the rock. It was about four, five now. The sun was still above the horizon. They had just sat down when a bolt of lightning flashed across the clear sky.

Jason and Piper had found it, then.

By the time Frank, Coach and Hazel arrived, Leo and Nico were already there with Jason and Piper. They were standing around a dark crack – well, more like a chasm – in the rock.

"Who's guarding the ship now?" asked Hazel as they landed.

"I left some skeletons there," answered Nico. "How does this thing work?"

Frank was about to suggest someone sat on it like what they did in ancient times when curls of green mist flowed out of the chasm. It moved like it was alive, which was pretty creepy.

Then a rasping voice – _the sound snakes would make if they could talk_, thought Frank – hissed in his mind. Apparently everyone else could hear it too. Hazel's hands were clamped over her ears, Nico looked distinctly uncomfortable as the voice hissed, Coach Hedge was sitting on the ground, and Leo, Piper and Jason were holding their heads.

_I am the spirit of Delphi, speaker of the prophecies of Phoebus Apollo. Approach, Seeker, and ask._

Frank wasn't sure what he'd be saying, but luckily, Jason took the lead.

"What will happen at the Doors of Death?" Jason asked, uncertainly.

The green mist hissed again, wrapping around all of them, before it spoke… well, spoke as much as green mist could speak.

_Six half-bloods above and two below._

_The Doors of Death to all shall go._

_At the Doors speaks charm the dove_

_The guardians deceived and gateway closed_

_The last fight to be on Olympus High_

_Allies and enemies alike falter and die_

Then the mist started curling backwards, before it completely vanished back into the chasm.

Frank felt rather stunned and dazed, as if he'd just been shocked by something. Looking around, he noticed most of the others looked like that too. Frank also realised they were all sitting on the ground.

Nico was the first back on his feet. He looked paler than ever. Orange-red light washed across his face.

Wait… orange-red light?

Frank turned to where he thought the west was, and saw the sun setting. He was stunned. Sunset already… that would mean they'd spent two or three hours here at Delphi listening to the prophecy. That… couldn't be right.

Slowly, they all got up. "Sunset," whispered Piper. "We've been here two, three hours listening to the prophecy?"

"That can't be right," said Leo. "It just can't be."

"Let's just get back onto the ship and set course for Epirus," said Nico. "We can discuss this later."

Everyone nodded, then shadow-travelled/flew back to the ship. Leo called a meeting, and they all sat down to discuss what to do next.

**What did you think of the prophecy? Anyone who can figure it out (or part of it) gets a cookie. **

**Please review!**


	24. Chapter 24: Frank

**COOKIES!**

**(::) (::) for Thalia Bolt who got all of the prophecy.**

**(::) for rrfanman who got half the prophecy.**

**Time: six o'clock, evening (sunset)**

**Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own HoO. **

Chapter XXIV Frank

Frank, Hazel and Coach Hedge were the last back to the Argo. By the time they arrived, Jason and Piper were already sitting down at the dining room and Leo and Nico were both in the kitchen making something. Frank hoped it was good. He was starving. Maybe that was a side effect of a prophecy.

Frank and Hazel slipped into their seats as Coach sat down in his spot. Jason leaned over and asked, "What did you think of that prophecy?"

"That prophecy was freaky," said Hazel. "Very, very freaky. Does the Oracle always do that?"

"Yeah, for our quest to rescue dear Hera we had to get a prophecy from the camp's Oracle, Rachel, and she spewed a ton of green smoke just like that," said Piper. "I guess that's what the Oracle does."

Frank frowned. "Isn't your camp's Rachel the Oracle of Delphi or something?"

"Yeah, she is," answered Nico, who was walking through the doorway holding a giant pizza in both hands. "And before you ask, I don't have a clue how, if the Oracle of Delphi is in America, how we got that prophecy." Nico set the pizza down on the table.

Leo came in a minute later with four 2L bottles of Pepsi, Sprite and Coke. He dumped them on the table before sliding into his seat. "Alright, everyone, what's going to be next?"

Nico frowned. "We make for Epirus," he said matter-of-factly.

"Yeah, I know," said Leo. "But this is the question. We can get there tonight or tomorrow morning. The Argo can do both. If we arrive tonight, it'll be at around nine, ten o'clock. If we arrive in the morning, about eight, nine maybe."

Frank thought for a while. They could arrive tonight or tomorrow. Before he could say anything, Jason said,

"Shouldn't we arrive tomorrow morning? I mean, we can't see in the dark, and all we'd achieve would be to just get there. We could all do with a last good night's sleep. And besides, aren't monsters, like, stronger at night or something?"

Hazel nodded. "They are, yeah. I agree with you on this one. There wouldn't be any point arriving at night."

Frank silently agreed. He would have done almost anything to have a good night's sleep. Frank's dreams had been plagued by nightmares since forever, and it wasn't nice. And besides, who knew what would happen at the House of Hades. Frank wanted to at least get a decent night's sleep before he "re-entered" the lovely world of monsters.

Nico, though, was frowning. "That's not a bad idea, Jason. But the more we remain on the air, the more chance we have of getting a giant storm. I mean, I know we're over Greece and all, but that wouldn't stop Poseidon if he wanted to send a bad storm against us."

That made sense too. And Coach seemed to agree with him.

"Death Boy is right, guys. The more we stay in the air, the more chance we have of getting hit by a storm. We'd be able to take cover at least if we land. I certainly don't want another giant storm blasting us way off course," he said. "That last one was way too much for me."

Piper seemed torn in half between the two sides. "I'd love to get a good night's sleep," she said, "and arrive tomorrow fresh and all. But Coach is right about the chances of a storm being bigger."

"Ah, c'mon Pipes, it's just a chance," said Leo. Frank got the impression he really wanted the sleep.

Piper glared at him. "I'd prefer landing tomorrow," she finally said. "But, well, if we get blown off course now…"

"Hopefully, we won't," said Leo. "What about you, Frank? What do you think?"

Frank froze. He had no idea what the Pluto to say.

"Well," he finally said, "I'd love the sleep, like Piper. But Nico's and Coach's side makes sense. I don't know."

Leo picked up a slice of pizza and started eating. "So, we'll arrive tomorrow morning then," he said through a mouthful of pizza. "And pray we don't get a storm."

Nico shrugged. "That's alright with me. To be honest, I'd prefer landing tomorrow too. It's just that the chances of a storm…" He trailed off and picked up a slice, then ate it.

Pretty soon they were all digging in. Frank was famished. He was pretty sure he got down six big slices of pizza and at least a litre of Coke.

When they were all somewhat satisfied, Hazel said, "What about the prophecy? Shouldn't we discuss that too?"

Frank nodded. "Yeah, shouldn't we?"

Nico swallowed his pizza. "Prophecies always have double meanings. I learnt that much from the ones I've heard of. Some of it, like, is pretty straightforward, but some of it is really awkward."

"_Six half-bloods above and two below_," said Frank. "Obvious much?"

Nico nodded. "And the next line, _The Doors of Death to all shall go_, is pretty simple to understand as well."

"I'm going to assume the third line, _At the Doors speaks charm the dove_," said Leo, "refers to Piper. She's the only dove here, and _speaks charm_ probably means charmspeak."

Piper nodded. "Okay, I speak charmspeak at the Doors. No biggie." Frank could tell she was freaking out inside because she was specifically mentioned, though, from the way she was sitting – more stiffly than before.

"_The guardians deceived and gateway closed_," said Coach. "Gateway closed is good, right? That has to mean we close the Doors. But _guardians deceived_?"

"That would imply there'll be guardians at the Doors," said Hazel. "Nico, what are the Doors like?"

Nico shifted. "There are some traps in there to catch the unwary," he said. "But no demigod would be caught, because we'd react too fast. Besides, I'm ready to bet Gaia has loads of monsters in there, maybe a giant, and even if it's just one monster, our ADHD would react and the traps wouldn't work."

Frank raised his hand. "Uh, I don't have ADHD."

Nico shrugged. "I don't think it would matter, Frank," he said. "You can turn into animals. There's no way the traps would catch you."

"What are the traps like?" asked Coach Hedge.

"They're just basic traps. Like leg-chopping blades or head-chopping blades or stuff like that."

"Leg chopping blades," repeated Jason. "How are they simple? We'd get our legs chopped off."

Nico smiled. "Actually, Jason, apparently the traps are neutralised automatically if the traps sense death. I'm assuming a goddess like Hecate set them like that."

"Hecate," said Piper. "The goddess of magic… and _she_ set the traps? There's no way they can be that simple! Hecate's stuff would be like, step on this and you get turned into a rabbit or something, right?"

"Yeah, the goddess of magic must set really wicked traps," agreed Leo.

Nico shook his head. "Actually, my dad told Hecate to develop the traps in a certain way; the traps wouldn't affect a child of Hades, or Pluto, if they're only five feet away from them. So, if we stick together, and Hazel and I neutralise the traps, we should get along great."

"What if we get separated?" asked Frank.

Nobody had an answer to that. "I suppose you regroup as soon as you can," guessed Leo.

"And avoid the traps," added Jason.

"I don't know what would happen if you went in without a child of either Hades or Pluto," said Nico. "Frankly, I don't want to find out."

"Okay, on that happy note, next sentence of prophecy," said Coach Hedge. "_The last fight to be on Olympus High_. That means…?"

"That's pretty obvious, I think," said Jason. "We end up fighting on the first Mount Olympus, in Greece. What really interests me is the last line. I mean, _Allies and enemies alike falter and die_. As far as I know, we don't have any allies, only enemies."

"Yeah," said Piper. "What would that mean? Our only possible allies would be the gods, and they can't die."

"I like the _enemies falter and die_ part," said Frank. "Allies, though…"

Hazel frowned. Gods, she was cute when she frowned.

"The only thing I can think of," she said, "would be if our two camps settled their differences and somehow ended up helping us on Mount Olympus. But that's pretty far-fetched."

Nico shrugged. "Well, it could happen. Like, the Greeks and Romans settle their differences, and then, _bang_, they end up magically transported to Mount Olympus to help us fight. A bit unlikely, though."

"Yeah," said Coach Hedge. "Anyway, don't know about you guys, but I'm pretty tired. I know it's only like eight, but I'm going to bed. Maybe catch some sleep. See you guys in the morning." He trotted out and vanished.

"I think I'll go try get some sleep as well," said Hazel, getting up. "I mean, if this is our last safe night, I want to catch some sleep. Even if I get horrid dreams."

One by one, they all got up, leaving the dirty dishes on the table. "It's not like anything'll get them," said Leo.

They all walked back to their cabins. Frank crashed onto the bed and was instantly asleep.

**Okay, what did you think of that? Please review!**

**Glimpse into the future: they won't reach Epirus 'tomorrow morning'**


	25. Chapter 25: Hazel

**Oh my gods I am so annoyed! Our **_**wonderful**_** (heavy sarcasm) internet company won't be installing broadband at my house until April 5 (AT LEAST!) I blame Hermes. That's another month of no internet!**

**Thanks for the reviews everybody! No, they won't reach the House 'tomorrow'!**

**Disclaimer: *sigh* so annoyed. I do not own HoO**

**Time: eight, nine – in bed.**

Chapter XXV Hazel

Hazel's dreams were as bad as usual. Through a swirl of colour she saw Percy and Annabeth, fighting in Tartarus. This time, it was a pod – well, at least Hazel thought it was called a pod – a pod of telkhines versus Percy and Annabeth. Hazel wondered if she could speak. If they were going to be at the House of Hades tomorrow, Percy and Annabeth would need to know.

"Percy? Annabeth?" Hazel called.

The voice that came out was ghostly, twisted into a voice that sounded like… a spirit of the dead.

Percy didn't seem to hear, but Annabeth did. "Who's there?" she asked, still fighting.

"It's me! Hazel!"

"Hazel?" repeated Annabeth. "What's going on?"

"Leo said we'd be at Epirus tomorrow. What about you guys? Are you OK?" Hazel winced at the last question. OK and Tartarus didn't go together.

"I'm fine," said Annabeth. "Percy, Hazel's here!"

"Where?" asked Percy, spinning around and vaporising the monsters around him in an arc.

"Here!" said Hazel. "Oh, yeah… you probably can't see me. Percy, we'll be at the Doors tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" asked Percy. "Thing is, Hazel, I'm pretty sure Tartarus time is different to whatever time zone you're in."

Hazel silently cursed. She should have thought of that. Time always flowed differently in monstrous places.

Annabeth stabbed another telkhine. "We're making progress, I think. Maybe we'll be able to see you there."

"Percy? Annabeth?"

This time it wasn't Hazel talking. It sounded like another spirit of the dead.

"Who's there?" called Percy.

"Frank!" replied the voice.

_Frank?_

Hazel didn't have time to ponder the weirdness of it all, because just then another voice yelled. "It's Leo! You guys all right?"

_What in Dad's name?_

"Jason here! How are you guys doing?"

"Guys, it's me, Nico!"

"Annabeth! Percy! It's Piper!"

Annabeth's eyes widened. "You're all here?" she asked incredulously. "The chances of that happening are one in a… hmm, what's…" She mumbled something incoherent as she continued slicing up monsters. Hazel felt amazed. Annabeth was doing _calculations_ and fighting monsters at the same time?!

"Let's just call it a conference," said one of the ghostly voices. Jason?

"Yeah," Percy agreed. "What's going on up there? How many days has it been?"

"About three, four, five, to be honest, I didn't keep count," said a sheepish voice. Nico?

"Wow, it's only been one and a half days down here," said Annabeth. Dispatching the last monster, she sat down.

Percy did the same. "Tell us what's been happening."

Frank's ghostly voice took the lead. "Well, we rested on an island for a quick stop, got caught in a storm sent by Poseidon because- " He was interrupted by Percy saying "You guys what? An _island_? You guys know islands are in the middle of the ocean, right?"

"Yeah, we figured it would be the best place to tell your dad," said Leo. Or was it Nico?

Percy sighed. "Let me guess, he took it badly."

"Uh, yeah."

"Anyway, then we met the Karkinos, a giant crab -" Hazel could have sworn Percy's eyes widened. " – and after we dealt with it Apollo appeared on the Argo with his car, and treated us to a horrid haiku – something about 'oops a crash landing' and 'nice chat with half-bloods'."

Percy smiled. It was nice to see that expression on him again. "Did Nico tell you not to listen to Apollo's haikus?"

"Yeah, I did," grumbled Nico. "The idiot called Leo wouldn't listen."

"Hey!"

Annabeth grinned. "What happened then?"

"Well, Leo helped him fix the car and we got an insight into Olympian family dinners," said Hazel.

Percy snorted. "Sure it wasn't an Olympian arguing dinner?" he asked.

"Yeah, it was mostly arguing," said Nico. "Then we got attacked by giant bees and went _way_ off course. As we tried to get back on course, Jason told us we had to go to Delphi. You know, the old place of the weird green mist that lives in Rachel? We had to go there, and then, we got a very nice, very mystifying prophecy that basically stated what we already knew. After that, we fell asleep and got here."

Annabeth raised her eyebrows. "Nice, Nico. Did you go insane?"

_What kind of a question was that?_

"Annabeth!" complained Nico. "No, I most certainly did not go insane, thank you very much!"

"Hey, what's going on? I think I'm leaving!" yelled Jason.

"Yeah, me too!" said Leo.

Annabeth shrugged. "The most likely reason is that you are either waking up or having another dream. You said the House, tomorrow?" Her voice was fading away rapidly.

"Yes!" yelled Hazel.

Then her own dream swirled and turned into a different picture. The Romans doing late-night planning over a map of Camp Half-Blood.

Oddly, _Octavian_ seemed to be the center of attention. To Hazel, there was probably no weirder thing. Octavian wasn't a fighter, he was a speaker. He definitely wasn't a planner. It made absolutely no sense, why Octavian was the center of attention when they were _planning_. Unless Octavian had received incredible wisdom or a dream of the Greek camp, Hazel really couldn't figure out what everyone was doing. Or maybe, Octavian had been captured and then freed? That didn't make sense either. Why would you capture somebody, tell him about your place, and then release him? Maybe they hadn't told him, or shown him around? He was too skinny to be a hostage? The children of Apollo didn't like him? There was a teddy-lover in the camp? They thought he was stupid?

In any case, Octavian was the center of attention, strutting up and down the tent like the king chicken in a flock. The thought made Hazel laugh a little.

"There were very little defences on the sea side," he was announcing. "Ships, maybe?"

"Octavian, do you actually want Neptune to kill you?" asked a centurion. Was it Robert? **(A/N that was a random name)**

"Uh… well, we obviously can't go up the hill anymore. They have a dragon guarding their little pine tree with its fuzzy gold thing."

"That gold thing, Octavian," said Reyna, "is the Golden Fleece. Of course they'd have a dragon guarding it."

Several centurions and senators choked. The Golden Fleece was a pretty big thing, after all. After regaining his confidence, Octavian said, "If we avoid the pine tree, we should be alright. They leave some pretty big gaps in their defences. Greeks. Always overconfident."

Hazel wanted to hear more, but there was a sudden jolt and the dream lurched.

There was another one. And another.

_What's going on?_

Hazel's dream shattered, splintering into a thousand pieces as Hazel sat bolt upright in her cabin.

It was swinging like crazy.

_Storm_, she thought. _Poseidon_.

Hazel found herself clinging on for dear life as the Argo swung and lurched. She risked a peek outside the window.

Outside, needle-like rain, hailstones and sleet were falling. And the wind was howling as it raced by.

In a few minutes, the other demigods were awake, too, and they gathered to have a 'conference' in the dining room. Hazel went too to join them.

_We should have SO listened to Nico_, she thought, before she walked into the dining room and took her place.

**Storm! That's your answer, guys! I hope you liked it. I know the ending was totally crap, but I hope you guys like it all the same! **

**Now, please scroll down. See that white box? Type something in. Anything. I don't care. Then click post. There! Not so hard to review, right?**

**Review please!**


	26. Chapter 26: Hazel

**Thank you for all the reviews! Sadly, I won't be able to update next weekend because a) it will be Easter, b) I will be busy – **_**very**_** busy -, and c) the library (my source of broadband) will be closed the entire Easter – that is, Good Friday, Easter Saturday, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday**

**For all of you asking for CHB scenario chapters, they're done in Reyna's POV, and Reyna POVs are always done after two Jason POVs. So the next CHB scenario will be Chapters 30-33. That will probably be the last CHB scenario, 'cos I really don't think I'll get much further than Chapter 35 at most.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own HoO (****)**

Chapter XXVI Hazel

Hazel crashed into the dining room, grabbing as many handholds as she could to stop herself from flying up and down. She noticed that half of them were already there, clutching handholds, and from the crashing noises behind her, Hazel guessed Leo, Piper and Nico were doing the same thing as her. Frank caught hold of her hand and dragged her into one of the chairs, which – thank the gods – Leo had fixed to the floor after the last crazy storm.

Hazel collapsed into her chair just as Leo flew down the stairs and crashed into the room, looking fairly bruised. _Ouch_, she thought, realising Leo must have crashed down half the stairs.

Nico simply shadow-travelled into his chair, but then almost passed out from exhaustion. Piper came in sideways, clinging to the wall to stop herself from flying off.

As soon as Piper made it in, the 'conference' started. "All right, cupcakes, what are we gonna do now?"

Jason shrugged. "Sit out the storm, Coach."

Coach Hedge scowled. "Sit it out and fly to where, cupcake? With this storm, we'll be blown halfway to Egypt. Yes, I know my geography!" he snapped, at the astonished looks he was getting.

Coach Hedge knew _geography_? Hazel could barely contain her surprise.

Frank sighed. "I wish we'd listened to you, Nico."

Nico shrugged. "What's done is done. Besides, landing in a place full of monsters at night isn't the greatest idea in the world."

"Yeah, I suppose… but we wouldn't be in this storm."

"Well, we might have been in a monster's stomach," pointed out Hazel. She felt a little queasy now from the constant lurching. Hazel hated being on a lurching boat. She always got seasick, and the bad memories – even though the flashbacks were over, she still had those memories – they always demanded attention when this kind of stuff was happening.

"Thanks for that thought," said Piper dryly. "Leo, which way are we going?"

Leo awkwardly got up and instantly fell. That provoked a light round of chuckling, at least until Leo gave them a death glare. Clutching the wall for support, he vanished through the doorway.

"Please don't make us too off course," muttered Piper. "We'll have enough of a hard time getting to Epirus as it is."

A few minutes later, Leo reappeared. In that time, the Argo had lurched twenty-two times, sent all the furniture that hadn't been fixed to the floor sliding to the right, and almost somersaulted. Hazel hoped it wouldn't. If it did, she was so dead.

"Well?" demanded Coach Hedge. "Valdez, where are we?"

Leo collapsed into his chair a split second before the Argo tilted to the left. "We're not that badly off course," he said. "The storm's bad, but it seems to be just blowing us around in a big circle over where we are now. Like this." He drew a big circle with his finger on the table. "That's us," he said, pointing to a dot on the 'map'. "And that's the storm. We are just going around and around in circles."

"Why?" asked Hazel, puzzled.

"Well…" said Nico slowly. "I suppose it could be because Lord Poseidon knows that if we don't get to the House, Percy's stuck in Tartarus. But he's still annoyed over that fact. So he isn't blowing us off course because then we won't get there in time, but he's sent this storm because he… uh… to put it simply, wants to vent off some steam."

Leo whistled. "Nico, congratulations! You are now officially a prophet!"

Nico raised his eyebrows. "Really? Are you serious? Just because I know my family better than most doesn't mean I become a prophet."

Leo shrugged, having no comeback for that.

"Anyway," said Frank, breaking the awkward silence. "Will we be able to get to Epirus tom – uh, today?" he asked.

Leo sighed. "Think so. If this storm lets up at noon or so, we'll get there in the afternoon. If this storm lets up at evening, we'd get there at night. But I don't fancy a night in Gaia's territory, so I suppose we'd have to stay on board another night."

"But this time we are getting to Epirus today no matter what," interjected Piper. "We can't risk another storm."

"Yeah," said Coach Hedge. "But we can't land at night."

"What if we hover?" asked Hazel. "Like, just above the range of monster weapons, but close enough so that if we get another storm like this one, we can just land after it finishes?"

Nico nodded. "That's a good idea, Hazel," he said. "If we do get a storm, we'd be low enough that at least some monsters would get blown away too. And any monsters we deal with before Epirus will help."

"Will help _us_," corrected Piper. "But it would be one more monster for Percy and Annabeth."

There was a brief moment of silence before Jason broke it. "This is going to be difficult," he said. "Every monster we destroy will attack Percy and Annabeth. They'll get two shots at us. One shot at us, and one at Percy and Annabeth. And we can't lose anyone."

"True," said Frank. "But we can't just, like, not destroy the monsters. If you knock them out, they'll just stab you in the back. Literally."

"Yes," Nico agreed. "But you're all forgetting something."

Everyone turned to look at him.

"Every monster we kill will plague Percy and Annabeth, yes," said Nico. "And it'll make our job harder. But we aren't here to babysit Percy or Annabeth. They're a brilliant pair of fighters. We just have to have faith in them that they'll reach Epirus safely. There's nothing else that we can do, anyway. If we don't kill monsters here, they'll attack us. We can't worry about them now. If we do, we'll fail our part."

Coach Hedge nodded. "Death Boy is right," he said. "We can't do anything to help them, at least not without risk to us. There's no point not killing monsters. And there's definitely no point in them succeeding their bit and us failing ours."

Piper cracked a smile. "Sure that's not just an excuse to destroy, Coach?" she asked.

"Shut it, cupcake."

"Anyway," Hazel interrupted, "do you guys know when the wind's going to stop?"

"No idea," said Leo. "But since we're all here and there's not much to do, why don't we start planning? Nico, off you go."

Nico rolled his eyes before starting. "Well, to get to the shrine…"

**Hope you liked this chapter! I know, most of it was talking and the storm got kinda pushed to the back, but when you're strapped into your seat and the room is all but soundproof, a storm doesn't really do much. They'll reach the House of Hades pretty soon. **

**Glimpse into the future: the storm will stop in the evening. And they'll take Hazel's hovering idea.**

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	27. Chapter 27: Hazel

**Thanks for the reviews everybody! This chapter will be when they reach the House and everyone sees Epirus, and there might be some dreams – either this one or the next one, which will be in Jason POV.**

**Time: roughly one hour before dusk (I really don't have a clue when the sun sets in summer in Greece– 8? 9?)**

**I edited the last chapter's A/N notes a little if you want to check them out again.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own HoO.**

Chapter XXVII Hazel

When Hazel came back out of the dining room, her mind was a blur from all the plans, maps and traps they'd been discussing. They must have gone through a billion possibilities and millions of sheets of paper. Gods, but her dad's shrine was way trickier than she'd thought. According to Nico, who was the only one who'd been there before, there were all sorts of traps, and she didn't like the sound of any of them. Sulfuric acid? Liquid mercury? Hazel didn't want to be caught in whatever traps those were in. She didn't want to be in any traps, for gods' sake!

The Argo tilted crazily to the left, sending Hazel sliding to the opposite wall and breaking her train of thought. It also sent Leo and Frank slamming straight into her.

"Ooof!" she grunted. "You're heavy!"

"Oh my gods Hazel! Are you all right? I'm so sorry!" Frank was almost hyperventilating from alarm.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Nothing broken."

"Sorry," apologized Leo, getting back up. "Are you okay?"

"I'm _fine_," Hazel said. "But you two need to go on a diet."

Frank choked and Leo stared at her as if she'd gone crazy. "Are… are you serious?" spluttered Frank.

Hazel was grinning on the inside, but she kept a straight face. "Totally. What are you guys eating, anyway, to make you so heavy? Bricks?"

Both of them flushed. "What! No! We eat normal food. Normal! Not bricks!" protested Leo, playing along.

"Yeah!" agreed Frank. He grinned. "You sure it's not you eating birdseed or something?"

Hazel rolled her eyes before continuing back to her cabin, holding on to the handholds carefully. Another jolt. This time they all held on and nobody crashed into anyone.

They continued moving carefully until they reached their cabins. Hazel slipped in and sank onto the bed. Glancing out, she saw that the storm was slowing down. There wasn't half as much rain lashing the windows as before.

The Argo dipped slightly. For a second Hazel thought the Argo was falling through the sky. Then she realized it was in a controlled descent. As soon as she realized this, she realized that the storm was abating.

_Of course_, Hazel thought, feeling stupid. _Leo would have told Festus to do a descent and then hovering over the place after the storm goes._

The Argo lowered smoothly and flew straight, aiming for the House. Hazel wanted so bad to drop to bed and sleep. At the same time, she wouldn't forgive herself if she was the last person to see the shrine. So Hazel pressed nearer to the glass and waited.

Hazel didn't have to wait very long.

As the sun reappeared and set, sending bands of pink, orange and gold across the sky, it illuminated the landscape where the Doors would be.

At first, Hazel felt a stab of disappointment. There was nothing but a wide open plain of grass. No shrine, or any sign that anything had been built underground.

Then she saw it.

It rose from the ground, the most impressive structure she'd seen – and that was saying a lot. (**A/N I'll be making up the stuff now – what I think Epirus will be like**) It was built of solid black marble, dark and imposing and seemingly absorbing the sun's rays as they hit. She'd half-expected it to be in ruins, since it was an ancient shrine, but it looked like it had been built yesterday. It looked like a black version of the Pantheon. What was more, it didn't look like it ended at the ground. It looked as if the shrine continued _below_ ground. Hazel decided immediately that it was one of the most beautiful, incredible, serious and _impossible_ buildings she'd ever seen.

As the Argo came closer, she caught her breath. The structure seemed even more impressive up close. The black marble columns soared upwards to support the roof. Each was carved with breathtaking images – although, up close, Hazel realized that, impressive though they were, there was also a sense of horror and death to them. The column Hazel was looking at depicted soldiers in a trench, firing away. The next column had the image of the mushroom cloud of Hiroshima – or maybe it was Nagasaki – blossoming into the sky, perfectly carved. If it hadn't been so delicate and so surreal, Hazel would have torn her eyes away to stop herself from looking at the scenes of death. As it was, Hazel only stared.

Hazel was really glad they were approaching at a slight angle. It gave her the chance to see more of the incredible shrine. She saw the walls, covered with barely-visible carvings in a language she didn't know. Probably Greek. There were faint etchings of people too on the walls, although it was too faded – or maybe just too lightly carved – to let Hazel see much. Right now she was seriously wondering if the ancient Greeks really had made this. How had they known about Hiroshima? The World Wars? Why wasn't the shrine anywhere close to even slightly eroded? She'd need to ask Nico later.

Her cabin door creaked slightly, and she spun, tearing her eyes away from the images, but it was only Frank. "Hi," she said, feeling a little silly about her idea that it was an attacker.

"Hey," he answered. "Have you seen it?"

Hazel stepped away from her window and let him take her spot. She saw his eyes widen.

"Whoa," he breathed. "Wow. How in the world-?"

"I know," she said. "It's a great view, isn't it?"

Frank just stared at the shrine before saying, "Lucky you. My window won't let me see such a good view."

Hazel frowned. Frank couldn't see it from his window? She asked him and he sighed.

"Come on," he said. "I'll show you the far less pretty view from my window."

Intrigued, she followed him to his cabin and glanced around. It was incredibly messy. There were things strewn everywhere, and his bed was completely covered by fresh clothes they'd bought in Rome, dirty clothes, and bowstrings.

"That's dirty," she said.

Frank sighed. "Yeah, well… you should see this."

Going over the window, Hazel looked out – and her mouth dropped open.

There were hundreds of monsters, forming a giant monster army. There were hellhounds, giants (the 'small' kind, not the kind that could only be killed by a demigod and god working together), telkhines, _dracaenae_, _empousai_, even a small drakon which thankfully didn't seem able to fly, and a ton of other monsters she hadn't ever seen before. It seemed like the world's largest collection of monsters in one place, outside of Tartarus.

"Gods," she whispered, half-stunned, half-awed by the sheer number of monsters. "Gaia's really going all-out in this, isn't she?"

Frank nodded. "I wonder if there'll be another giant here commanding the lot. Like Polybotes. I hope not, but I think there will be."

"Possibly," said Hazel. "But since the last fight will be on Olympus, maybe Gaia will be, like, I don't know, saving them or something?"

"She'll probably have one here, just to slow us," said Frank. "But not too many. She probably can't risk losing another two of her sons here. She'll need them for Olympus, won't she?"

Hazel nodded.

That was when the last ray of sunlight vanished.

The change was instantaneous. There wasn't even twilight. The light just went out, and the monsters all vanished from view.

Hazel and Frank rushed over to Hazel's window and looked out.

And gasped.

In the darkness, the shrine seemed transformed. The solid black marble temple suddenly loomed out, seemingly glowing with its own dark light. The shrine suddenly became more than impressive, impossible – Hazel decided it was now also _ominous_. Really ominous.

As if that wasn't enough, the white carvings on the walls started pulsating, shining with a weird white light that illuminated the Greek words perfectly.

There was a knock on the door. Nico walked in.

"It's amazing, isn't it?" he asked.

Hazel could only nod. "What's the writing on the walls say?"

Nico hesitated before saying, "It seemed to be a description of every great cause of death that was… and possibly will be. On the left, I've got the Black Death. American Civil War. There's even World War I – a perfect description right down to Germany's surrender – inscribed over there. For some reason, witch trials in Europe – guess it was when the women were accused of being witches and hanged. On the right, there's a list of great causes of death that haven't happened yet. World War III – hopefully it doesn't happen soon. It seems to be mostly mortal – wait, there's the Second Titan War on the left. I reckon it's just great causes of deaths."

"Is this war in it?" asked Frank.

"Second Giant War? Yeah, it's the first carving on the right."

"Great. Have you seen the monsters yet?" asked Hazel.

"Uh huh. We've got one last night of safety – kind of – before this starts again. I don't know about you guys, but I'm going to crash. Wars mean tiredness and the more sleep you can stock up, the better." He turned and left the room.

They watched him go before Frank sighed. "He's got a point. I suppose I should crash too." He gave Hazel a light kiss before vanishing out of the room.

Hazel stared at the door, then back out the window, where the glowing white script was slowly fading into nothingness. Hazel wondered if they did so every day.

Suddenly tired, Hazel sank onto her bed. A second later, she was asleep.

**DUN DUN DUN! They are now in Epirus. What did you think of the description of the House of Hades? I hope you liked it. There's a lot of monsters down there for them to fight. And the glowing script part was my idea of a way of… tribute to death, by recording every single major cause of death in a few years, like the Black Death. **

**Hope you liked it! PLEASE REVIEW!**

**What should I do now for the camps? (They're in just 2 chapters) Please review for your answer! (Cookies…)**


	28. Chapter 28: Jason

**OH MY GODS I AM SO MAD! I STILL do not have internet connection! I swear this is insane. Curse the company. I blame Hermes.**

**This is a dream chapter… hmm, yes, I think a giant at the place could be interesting… now, which one?**

**Disclaimer: Do I really have to say this every time? I don't own HoO (duh)**

Chapter XXVIII Jason

Jason didn't stick around to watch after the shrine appeared and the sun set. Sure, the place was more than cool with all those carvings, but the creepy glowing writing was not his cup of tea. And then there were all these monsters, enough to rival Mount Othrys, going around probably waiting for them to get down so they could attack. Plus the traps and whatever else was in Hades' shrine, and it was enough to make Jason want to forget that he saw anything. So after the creepily ominous shrine finished its weird glowing writing, Jason collapsed onto his bed and fell asleep.

In Jason's dreams, he was standing beside a pair of Tartarus-black doors that were carved with scenes of gruesome death, lit by flickering green torches.. Even though the pair of doors were set low – in fact, Jason would have barely been able to walk through without bending - the pair of doors radiated a powerful aura of fear and death. Jason had a bad feeling they would be even worse in real life. The Doors – he was sure now they were the Doors of Death – exuded so much sheer terror Jason could only imagine what would happen if somebody touched them. Nothing good, probably.

The green torches suddenly dimmed. Jason looked up in alarm to see a giant dark shadow move across the wall. It was huge, as big as Otis at least. A giant.

_Styx_, thought Jason. _Another of Gaia's sons is here. Not good. Which one?_

Unable to see what the giant actually looked like, he focused on the shadow. It showed a normal looking giant person. Jason would bet everything he had that the giant would be anything but normal. He wouldn't even be that surprised if it had huge orange dreadlocks braided down its back, scaly draconic legs, and snake fangs. Giants were weird.

"So they are here!" the giant boomed contemptuously. "Six half bloods and a satyr, right?"

"Right, my lord," said a voice from the shadows. Jason didn't know who it was. It sounded human, but Cyclops could sound human – a lot of monsters could.

"And they'll make for the Doors. Fools. They're dead."

"Of course, my lord," the voice said. "Of course they're dead. It's a suicide mission anyway."

"Humph," grunted the giant. "I want you to make sure they die in the attempt to reach these Doors. You know how these traps were built. Split the demigods away from the spawn of Hades, and they're goners. Make sure this happens, understand? If you fail…" The giant trailed off. Jason could guess. The owner of the voice would be as good as dead.

"Yes, my lord. I will start straight away. Do you wish for me to keep half the monsters back in the rare possibility that they do indeed make it out, my lord?"

"They will NOT make it back out!" boomed the giant. "If they do, you will pay! They are not to come out alive – none of them! Do you understand?"

"Y-yes, my lord, I understand. I will hold nothing back. But, my lord, do you wish for me to kill them before or after they reach the Doors?"

"Before, you fool! What good is it if they reach the Doors and close them? Leave the spawn of the sea god and the wisdom goddess in Tartarus. They'll die anyway. But the rest of them – DO NOT LET THEM NEAR THE DOORS!"

The green flames flickered at the noise. The one furthest away from Jason died.

All along the corridor, the darkness rolled down.

Jason wasn't sure anymore where he was. His dreams could have changed. Or he could still be stuck there.

Then there was a whooshing sound, and he found himself outside the shrine, looking at it… or rather, at the face of Gaia, on the earth.

"Well, well, my little hero," she said. "Made it this far have you? You're a persistent little one… what a shame you'll die here, at the shrine of your uncle."

Jason wanted to speak but couldn't. He was stuck there, unable to speak, probably looking like the biggest idiot in history.

"Yes... I think I will enjoy your death," Gaia hissed. "Oh, but of course… you are a _Roman_. You all seek honour and glory, don't you? A death at the hands of my son might be too _glorious_." She sneered. "I think a more ignoble death might suit you. Nobody will think twice about a hero dying by hellhound." She laughed, the sound like a tremor in the earth. Small stones jumped.

Jason found his voice again. "Your son?" he managed out before he was struck silent.

"Yes, _my son_," Gaia said with a growl. "The almighty Gration will certainly have fun toying with you before he kills you. Sounds good, don't you think?"

Jason was freaking out inside at the confirmation of a giant present, but he kept his cool. "Gration, eh?" he said. "Never heard of him!"

Gaia started laughing in earnest now. "Trying to get me angry, little hero?" she asked. "That's not going to work, sadly. And yes, _you_ might not have heard of him. But your sister, I think, will. After all, he is the bane of Artemis, is he not?"

Jason concealed his shock. "Bane of Artemis?"

Gaia shifted. The earth rippled around her. "Of course. Every Olympian has one, correct?" The earth began to ripple again, sending small plants into the air. Again. Again. Each time stronger.

"So enjoy your death!" With a laugh, she vanished.

The earth rumbled violently. It was an earthquake.

_Wake up!_ Jason's mind screamed. It was no use. His subconscious decided there was more to see, and Jason's sight blurred again.

This time, he was with Percy and Annabeth. Both of them were pale, fighting yet again. This time it was a horde of hellhounds. Even as they were vaporised, another two took their place.

Jason badly wanted to keep watching, even if he couldn't help. But then his dream whirled and he shot out of Tartarus through a pair of black doors.

Wait… black doors.

Jason turned, and the blood drained from his face. He was back at the House of Hades.

Jason had just come out of Tartarus through the Doors of Death.

_Oh gods_, he thought.

Of course, that had to be the exact moment he woke up. To very inhuman yells.

Jason threw off his blankets and rushed to the window – and his heart sank.

What seemed like every single monster in the army had rushed forward, in attack. Even though they were too high to be hit, the monsters were still trying. And of course, some of them had wings.

Even now, the winged monsters that they had somehow overlooked were landing on the Argo II.

Jason grabbed his sword and rushed up to the deck for his new, monster-infested day.

**So… what did you think? The ending wasn't very good – sorry! Right now I am really stressed out because I have exams, and assessments (short stories) which only allow 1000 words **_**max**_**, which I will definitely have trouble with (1000 words min is more my type). The whole year has to do it, too, so everyone's results will be graded with one another – so obviously, I want a good score. I should be able to do a chapter every three or so days after I hit holidays, though.**

**Please review! Next chapter: fight against monsters. Then, CHB.**


	29. Chapter 29: Jason

**DING DONG! I am on HOLIDAYS! So, I should be able to give a chapter more often. Sadly, my very useless internet company will not be doing anything until April 19****th****, which totally sucks. I blame Hermes. Anyway… chapter 29!**

**Disclaimer: I do not *sniffles* own HoO. *sniff* *sniff***

Chapter XXIX Jason

Jason rushed up the deck, grabbing his sword and waking Piper, Nico and Coach Hedge on the way. As they hurriedly got up, Jason raced up the ladder at full speed, his sword in front.

Frank and Hazel were already up, taking care of the flying monsters while Leo and Festus kept the ship high enough to avoid most monsters. Festus snorted fire at an _empousa _that had somehow gotten up there.

"Good to see you, Jason!" yelled Frank. "Can you believe what they're _doing_?"

Jason rushed to a side of the Argo, slicing apart a couple of _dracaenae _on the way, and looked down. His mouth dropped open.

The Earthborn – the six-armed guys – weren't launching rocks at the ship. Instead, they were launching monsters. Even now, two _dracaenae_ were being hurled up. Jason slashed them out of the air before they could land.

At the same time, he saw Laistrygonians carrying telkhines, _empousai_, and _dracaenae_ on their shoulders. They would do a weird jump, and the monsters would use it to launch themselves into the air. Even worse, there were hellhounds shadow-travelling all over the place. Jason ducked as one snuck up on him, then stabbed the monster and rejoined Frank.

"Crazy, huh?" asked Frank. He turned into a giant eagle and snatched seven monsters out of the air, destroying them, before landing again and stabbing some more.

Jason could only nod as he stabbed and slashed through a horde of _dracaenae_, each monster wailing as Jason's sword connected. They did manage to throw some nets on Jason, which cost him a few seconds that a telkhine tried to take advantage of. Jason stabbed the monster and it dissolved into dust.

"Whoa!" a voice yelled. Jason glanced over to see Nico, Piper and Coach Hedge come up the deck. Nico instantly went for the hellhounds, banishing them back to the Underworld, while Piper started taking on the _empousai_ and Coach whacked his way over to Leo, letting Leo concentrate on the steering.

Jason jumped as a sword held by a monster slashed at his legs, before vaporising the monster. He stabbed another one that had been sneaking up on Hazel and started working on the _dracaenae_ that had made it up.

The next few minutes – or maybe hours – passed in a blur. Jason had no idea how many monsters there were. Maybe it was just that they were all coming back out of Tartarus as soon as they dissolved. At one point, he'd nearly been pounced on by a hellhound, which Piper took care of. At another point, a young dragon half-flew, half-leaped onto the deck and it took Jason, Hazel and Nico working together to send it back to Tartarus. At yet another point, the monsters stopped being thrown onto the Argo and rocks started flying instead.

Jason quickly discovered it was a lot harder dodging rocks than fighting monsters. Rocks couldn't be stabbed, or vaporised. Jason ended up taking cover with Frank, Nico, Piper and Coach Hedge under a big ruby canopy Hazel had made. She was the only one who could divert the rocks back onto the ground, and Leo was needed to steer the Argo. More than once, the ship banked steeply or wobbled and sent all the demigods crashing to one side.

"Look," said Jason, under the ruby umbrella, "we can't keep going like this. We need to be more organised. Like, we'll each take a species of monster."

Frank nodded. "I'll take the telkhines."

"I'll deal with the hellhounds," said Nico.

"And I'll take the _empousai_," said Piper. "That leaves you with the _dracaenae._"

Jason nodded.

After a while, the rocks stopped coming and the monsters returned. Jason went back to vaporising _dracaenae_. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Frank dealing with telkhines. That was good. They were sticking to the 'plan'. A _dracaena_ leapt out of the shadows and Jason vaporised it. The snake women just kept on coming.

"Leo!" yelled Jason. "We need to get rid of the Earthborn and the Laistrygonians! Otherwise they'll just keep launching monsters!"

"Right-ho, Captain!" Leo yelled back. "Festus!"

A steady stream of fire bursted from the masthead, incinerating the ground. Jason saw Earthborn erupt in flames. Laistrygonians spontaneously combusted.

Slowly, the monsters on the Argo dwindled until there weren't any more, the non-winged monsters being unable to get up.

Of course, that was when the gorgons came up.

"For the love of the gods!" shouted Nico. "Since when did Medusa's sisters come back so fast!"

"I will destroy you!" screeched the one with a badge that named her 'Euryale' – at least, Jason thought it said that.

"I have free samples!" hollered the other one. _Huh_?

Hazel slashed through both of them, vaporising them. That was when Jason noticed that she had tipped her sword with diamonds to make it basically be able to cut anything. _Handy_, Jason thought.

"We need to land, Leo," said Piper, brushing her hair out of her face. "We can't go on fighting like this forever in the sky. If we don't land, we won't be able to close the Doors!"

Jason remembered his dream. "Guys," he said. "You should probably know that there's a giant in there."

They all froze. "What?" asked Hazel incredulously. "Another one?"

Jason nodded.

Leo groaned. "Great. What's the guy's name?"

"Uh, Gaea said he was called 'Gration'," said Jason.

"Bane of Artemis," said Piper. "Great."

"Yeah, we need a god," said Frank.

"Actually, Frank," said Coach Hedge, "we need to get in first. As for gods, well, let's hope for the best. Let's just land."

Leo nodded and set Festus in for a spiralling descent, making sure Festus was blowing fire all –or most – of the time. The fire incinerated a good portion of the _empousai_, who screeched as they died. The 'sweet' sound flew through everyone's ears, but only the boys were affected. Piper had to tell them to snap out of it.

As soon as they landed, hordes of monsters charged, swarming all over the ship. Jason found himself wading through _dracaenae_ and electrifying the giants that had survived. Jason made sure he could see his friends at all times.

They made slow but steady progress. The problem was that it was just so _draining_. Jason found himself pretty exhausted by the time the demigods made it together again.

Leo had a small cut on his arm and looked rather pale from all the fire he'd released. Hazel and Nico didn't look much better. Piper and Frank were the only ones who looked okay-ish, with minor wounds. Jason guessed he himself looked somewhat like Hazel. He was pretty drained from all that electricity he'd released.

"Not to alarm you guys, but we'd need a miracle to get in now," Nico stated bluntly.

Jason opened his mouth to say something, but he was cut off by a golden flash somewhere to his right. All the monsters turned towards it.

"There's your miracle, Nico," said Coach Hedge. "Now, RUN!"

They charged towards the shrine, which still dominated the landscape, slashing and stabbing monsters on the way. It was a good thing all the monsters were focused on the golden flash. It gave them time to get to the shrine.

The monsters suddenly split in half. One half started towards them. The other half roared towards the flash.

Jason sprinted, full-speed, towards the temple, the others following. They reached the steps just as the monster army fanned out, surrounding them.

"In!" yelled Nico, dashing inside. They followed.

As soon as they were inside, the monster army rushed forwards, probably hoping to pin them inside. Instead, Nico focused, and the wide bronze doors swung inwards, closing with a loud BOOM!

The inside of the shrine, Jason noticed, was completely made of black marble. The marble seemed to leach light from the place, because as soon as the doors closed, it became pitch black.

Leo made a tiny fireball appear, but it was instantly whisked away by some force. "Hey!" said Leo.

"It's the marble," said Nico. "It can leach away light."

"Then how do we find our way in this place?" asked Leo.

_Whoosh_!

Flickering green flames bursted into life along the black walls. Greek fire. They cast ominous shadows over the walls – and lit up another pair of bronze doors at the end of the corridor.

They all walked towards it. With every step, Jason felt as if he was interrupting something, that he shouldn't be here.

Piper gripped his hand as they walked. "We shouldn't be here," she muttered.

"I know," he whispered back.

They arrived at the bronze doors. Up close, Jason saw that there was a Greek description carved on it.

"_Beware, stranger, whoever you are_," Piper translated softly, "_beware the forces at work in front there. For Death's domain is filled with danger, and the further you go, the more it gets stranger._" She glanced at Nico. "Huh?"

"There's more," said Nico, waving her on.

"_Traps await in the long dark gloom. Be careful they do not spell your doom. The sentinels will watch with eyes far and wide, and decide if your cause is wrong or right._" She shifted, before continuing, "_To pass them use trickery or gamble, but be warned, the guardians do not take kindly to force or strangle. Pass them finds the Doors of Death, gateways through Tartarus, Aboveworld, Underworld and last breath. Close or open, stranger take care. Two double-side locks mean one must stay there._"

"One must stay there?" asked Hazel. "Does that mean one must stay in Tartarus, or what?"

"Well, if it comes to that," said Coach Hedge. "I'm staying. No arguments. I'm a protector, right? Besides, I always wanted to see Tartarus first-hand."

Jason glanced at Leo, who just shrugged. "Not much we can do if he wants to," Leo muttered.

"Uh, yeah," said Nico. "Sure. Whatever you say, Coach. Anyway, let's do this."

Nico pushed the doors slightly, and they slid smoothly inwards, to reveal a large room with a door on the end, and in the room, a lake of fire with a narrow path that hugged the walls, which had holes in them, probably containing deadly things Jason didn't think he wanted to know about.

"Well," Coach Hedge finally said after a long period of silence. "Let the traps begin!"

**Did you like that? That was definitely my longest chapter so far, almost 2000 words in that! I added a Hunger Games reference to the end, it seemed right (although no character has read the Hunger Games in this book). For those of you who haven't read that, at the start of the Games they say "Let the Games begin!" so I just 'adjusted' it a bit.**

**Whoever can guess who was in that flash of light that gave the demigods time to get to the House gets a cookie! I'll make it a multiple choice question just to make it easier.**

**A) Camp Half-Blood**

**B) Camp Jupiter**

**C) Both Camps**

**D) The Olympians**

**E) Party Ponies**

**F) Minor Gods**

**I'll reveal the answer (and the cookie-getters) in the next HoH scene, which will be Chapter 33, Jason. (CHB scenes are next, everybody who asked when will be the next CHB scene will know now!)**

**PLEASE REVIEW! **


	30. Chapter 30: Reyna

**So today I am supposed to be getting broadband. So far, so not good. HERMES!**

**Anyway, this is the CHB scene. Remember, my question in the previous chapter can still be answered!**

**Disclaimer: I do not *sniff* *sniff* own HoO *sniff* *sniff***

Chapter XXX Reyna

Reyna slipped silently through the tall grass with the best scouts from camp. They'd all decided it wouldn't hurt to do a bit of scouting again, after the sort-of fiasco that had happened last time, what with the dragon and the lightning girl and all. Reyna crouched low in the long grass – they really should have cut that, it was a great hiding place – and made her way up to the hill. It was just before dawn, and rosy streaks were already breaking out in the east. Surely no Greek would be up at _this_ hour.

They made their way to the top of the hill, where the pine tree was. This time, Reyna made sure to keep everybody well away from the pine tree and its guardian dragon, who was snoring away, blowing soft smoke rings into the air. Reyna guessed the dragon could wake pretty quickly when it needed to, and she didn't want to test her theory.

They arrived at the top of the hill. Reyna knew it was a really exposed position – any archer could pick them out, one by one. But the Romans needed to know the camp and its layout if they were to have a successful attack.

The scouts continued forwards. There was nothing to stop them. Reyna and the others quietly slipped down the slope, into the Greek camp, watching for any sentries.

There was a sudden bird call to the east. It sounded like a cockerel of some kind. Reyna glanced over, and saw that the sun had already risen. Damn it! The plan had been to sneak away by sunrise. Reyna gave the camp a quick glance-over, then raced back up the slope, down the other side, and into the grasses with the other scouts. They shot back to the Roman camp, keeping hidden most of the time.

Reyna slowed when they were at the bottom of the hill again. She ducked behind a small strawberry bush that was obviously the camps. _What the Pluto_, she thought. _I'm hungry, and these strawberries are just ripe. Why not?_

Reyna plucked some strawberries and ate them. They were really good. The other scouts followed her example and plucked some too. Breakfast was breakfast.

There was another cry on the hill. This time, it was definitely human. Reyna threw herself behind the bush and peeked out.

From this distance, she couldn't see the boy very well, but it was obvious he was an archer. He was holding a bow that gleamed gold in the rising sun, and a quiver full of polished arrows. Reyna hadn't seen the boy before, so that ruled out the Will guy from the day before. A golden bow… probably a child of Apollo, she decided.

The boy went over to the dragon and stroked it for a while before scaling a tree with ease. He took up a comfortable position and started scanning the area for Romans – them.

Reyna quietly hustled her group back to the camp. When they got there, they were assaulted with questions.

"Did you see –?"

"Was there a–?"

"What was it–?"

"SILENCE!" Reyna yelled. "One question at a time."

One of the senators spoke up. "Were there any sentries?"

"Yes," said Reyna, "but he only arrived at sunrise. So it's a safe bet they leave their camp pretty much unguarded at night."

"Except for the dragon," another camper said dryly.

"I say we just attack at night when there aren't any people on guard!" broke in Octavian, raising his voice.

"No way! How is that any way honourable for a Roman? Besides -" another person said.

"It's not like the lot of _graecus _are honourable anyway. What kind of honour involves cowards and archery?" demanded Octavian, cutting the person off.

"Yeah!" chimed in one of Octavian's lackeys.

"Well, it's still not right! Even if the enemy is dishonourable, it's no reason for us to be!" yelled another camper.

"And besides, even if the scouts didn't see any sentries at night, how do you know there aren't any? Maybe the Greek was just too disguised for them to see!" shouted another Roman.

"Are you trying to insult us?" one of the scouts yelled, his face turning red.

Gods, what a mess. Reyna would actually prefer Lord Jupiter's lightning bolt to this ridiculous arguing.

"ALL RIGHT!" Senator Larry yelled, successfully restoring order to a certain degree. He turned to Reyna. "Reyna, who was the sentry who came at sunrise?"

Reyna shrugged, remembering the boy and the way he'd handled his bow and quiver. "I reckon it was a son of Apollo. He was holding a _golden bow_, like. I couldn't see his face, but it definitely wasn't the Will guy from before."

"Okay, at sunrise we have Apollo sentries," said a senator. "Better write that down." He scribbled a note on a piece of paper from his pocket.

"Why would it be Apollo sentries?" wondered another senator as he shooed away the campers that had come to see the commotion.

Reyna shrugged. "No idea. Maybe it's because they're the only ones that can get up at sunrise?"

The Third Cohort's centurion's eyes widened. "That's got to be it. Since Apollo's god of the sun, his kids must wake up at sunrise. That would make them the ideal sentries for the early morning."

"Then who would be the night sentries?" asked Dakota, taking a swig from his Kool-Aid flask. "Kids of the night?"

"Well, the only son of Pluto we know is Nico di Angelo," said Octavian. "Always did think he was a bit fishy."

"But seriously, Octavian," argued Larry. "Do you honestly think Di Angelo could be a sentry? I doubt that kid could even swing a sword. Him and sentry just don't mix."

"I agree with you, Larry," said another senator. "Di Angelo? Sentry? The kid's more likely to kill himself than anyone else." (**Remember, they don't know Nico's fighting skills – SoN**)

"Let's ignore that for the moment," interrupted Reyna, "and get on with the task at hand. When do we attack, senators?"

"I suggest now," said Octavian.

"Don't be ridiculous," snapped a senator. "Half the legion isn't awake yet, and the other half is starving!"

"How about after breakfast then?" a centurion suggested.

"Nah, we'd be stuffed and pretty much unable to move," said Dakota.

"Let's attack at noon," said Reyna. "They'd be at their activities, so they'd be off guard. And anyway, to them, it'd probably be like 'what army attacks at noon?' Always be unexpected."

"Yeah, good idea," said Larry. "Off guard, and they'd be eating too, so they wouldn't be able to react as fast."

"'Time is money,'" muttered a senator.

"Okay, then," said Octavian. "We attack at noon, when they're off guard. And we don't leave anyone to the Greeks!" He said that with a glare at the senators and Reyna.

Reyna sighed. When was he going to get the policy? Never, that was when.

"Okay," she said. "Everyone, go to your activities. Or breakfast. Meet here at ten o'clock for extra discussion. Meeting dismissed."

The senators, centurions, augur and praetor instantly rushed out and raced for breakfast.

**So, next chapter will either be fighting (likely) or arguing (also likely) between Roman and Greek. Please vote for your favourite by review! If you pick arguing, please also write the name of the Greek demigod who you think should be doing the arguing. E.g. Arguing, Lou Ellen.**

**Also remember to keep submitting answers for the question last chapter! Here it is:**

_**Who was in that flash of light that gave the demigods time to get to the House? I'll make it a multiple choice question just to make it easier.**_

_**A) Camp Half-Blood**_

_**B) Camp Jupiter**_

_**C) Both Camps**_

_**D) The Olympians**_

_**E) Party Ponies**_

_**F) Minor Gods**_

**Remember, you get a cookie if you guess! Two if you're right. One if you're wrong. **

**Also, a new twist: you can vote for up to three answers! So you have more chances of getting a cookie! (Although be careful, voting A, B and C won't make any sense) Good Luck!**

**Please Review!**


	31. Chapter 31: Reyna

**Yes! I have finally gotten broadband YES! Thank you Hermes! Thank you!**

**Today just happens to be ANZAC Day (25 Apr). I'm sure your history teacher/professor, your parent or the amazing INTERNET can tell you all about it. It's a very serious event, commemorating the dead Aussie soldiers in WWI, how they landed in Europe and fought and…yeah. If you're interested, you can probably find stuff on the internet. It's too solemn for me to write here.**

**You guys seem to prefer Arguing over Fighting. I'm going to put Clarisse on guard duty, 'cos the Stolls and Thalia have already been involved. Sadly, Dionysus cannot be put on guard duty and thus he cannot be arguing. ^_^**

**Disclaimer: Rick Riordan does not live in Oz. He is not a teenage girl. Therefore, I do not own HoO.**

Chapter XXXI Reyna

Reyna sent the Second Cohort around the back of their army and to the side. The plan was that when the legion attacked, and the Greeks defended, the Second Cohort could sneak in and take them by surprise. Reyna wasn't sure if it would work, but there was no way they could find out without actually doing it. This time, Reyna just hoped to the gods that when the Greeks appeared, they wouldn't start another round of arguing, at least not with Octavian doing the arguing. He was with the Third Cohort, which had frustrated him immensely. ("It's an insult to my honour that I, a First Cohort legionnaire, should be with the crappy Third Cohort!") He had said that in front of Larry and some other Third Cohort people, which had resulted in quite some yelling and wailing.

Reyna herself was with the Fifth Cohort. The golden eagle was being carried by the Fourth. Hopefully, they wouldn't lose it. The First Cohort was, well, just the First.

They slipped through the tall grasses, Reyna carefully watching the top of the hill through binoculars. This time, Reyna had no intention of letting her troops near the pine tree and the dragon. Or letting them insult a dead camper and drag their parent over.

When Reyna reached the top, she glanced down briefly to see the Third Cohort shifting. Great. Octavian was at it again. She did a prearranged bird call and got Octavian to stop riling them.

Reyna glanced around again. She was at the top of the hill, a fairly exposed position, but there weren't any archers or arrows. Why? If she had been defending, she would have put all the archers she had on the slope.

A horn suddenly sounded. It sounded vaguely like some sort of seashell. So the Greeks had spotted them. Phase 2 of plan complete, then. Now all they needed was for the Greeks to engage them and the Second Cohort to slip-.

Reyna suddenly saw the horn blower. A burly girl, pretty well built and pretty big, too. There was a spear in one of her hands and the horn – a conch out of all things – in the other.

"So who might you be, punk,?" she grunted, leaping down from the tree. (**A/N Clarisse **_**might**_** be a little OOC just so you know)**

Reyna stared back at the girl before finally saying, "Reyna, daughter of Bellona."

The girl frowned. "The goddess of bologna?" she asked in a baffled voice.

Reyna scowled. Why was it that strangers kept mixing up her mom's name with food?

"Bellona," she repeated. "Goddess of _war_."

The burly girl raised her eyebrows. "War, huh? That's good, princess. I like war… most of them. The name's Clarisse, daughter of Ares."

Reyna blinked. "Mars?" she asked.

"Who's that, princess?"

Reyna mentally sighed. Of course, this girl wouldn't know the Roman names. And the plan didn't seem to be doing much good. And she hated being called princess.

"Mars is the Roman name for Ares," she said tightly.

"Uh-huh, princess. What's he like?"

Reyna was about to snap and yell when a voice squeaked/squealed "He's one of the greatest gods! He's the sponsor of Rome and the patron of our legions and a tactical genius and a-" Reyna tuned out the voice so she could look.

Gods. It was _Octavian_. Why him out of all legionnaires? _Again_?

Thegirl – Clarisse – glanced at Octavian before saying, "You're the shrimp Hermes cabin caught yesterday, right?"

Octavian looked indignant. "I'm not a shrimp!"

Clarisse snorted. "You look like one, chicken. You know the Hermes cabin made bazillions yesterday 'cos of your one-sided fight with Clovis? Put commentary on the video and all. Every single person here bought one, except us. We just bought one total."

Octavian started turning red. "I'm not a chicken!" he yelled, a little pathetically. "And it wasn't one-sided! I fought!"

Clarisse snorted. "Yeah, right, kid. That would explain why the shrimp got destroyed by the baby cow head."

Reyna was baffled. _Baby cow head_? What the Pluto?

"I AM NOT A SHRIMP!" Octavian yelled, _very _pathetically. Reyna slowly started backing away. She had decided. Octavian and the burly girl could debate/fight it out.

Clarisse snorted again. "You're not a shrimp? Please. Like, I already knew Apollo kids were, like, sissies, but you'd get first prize for being sissy. And cowardly. And stupid. Which, as much as I don't like to admit it, not Apollo kids' job."

Reyna kept backing away as Octavian shouted, "How do you know I'm a descendant of Apollo?"

The daughter of Ares stared. "_Please_, shrimp. There was a freaking _commentary_ on the video. Don't you think the Stolls would have said your name first?"

Octavian started looking flustered before he burst out, "The Hermes cabin pulled the rubber prank on you!"

The girl waved her hand dismissively. "Already knew that. By the way, is it true you guys attacked Mount Othrys?"

Octavian looked surprised, and a little bit pleased. "Yup, that's us!" he said proudly.

The girl glanced at him skeptically. "Really? When Jason was here I could kinda believe it, but with you… yeah, right. I'd like to see you try, shrimp. More likely you stayed at the back and stabbed half-dead monsters 'cos you couldn't fight. The day a shrimp like you attacks a Titan… that's the day Athena and Poseidon stop arguing and fall in love." She snorted. "Never gonna happen, shrimp."

Reyna was now a good one hundred paces away from Octavian. She could see a fair bit of the Greek demigod camp, and she could see that there were a lot of people coming up the incline. A bit slower than Reyna had expected. So she had been right, in saying the Greeks were having lunch and would be slower than usual.

Clarisse didn't seem to notice the new arrivals/reinforcements. She just continued assessing Octavian.

Octavian glared at her. "It's rude to stare!" he snapped.

"Yes, like being polite is part of me," the girl snapped right back. "Shut it, shrimp, or I'll cream you."

Octavian, wisely, shut up. Even he could see that this girl was serious. Reyna silently sighed.

A boy appeared over the incline. He was dressed in Greek-style armour, with a sword by his side. "Hey Clarisse," he called.

A faint smile appeared on Clarisse's face. It vanished the next second as she half-turned and called, "Yeah, Chris?"

"Who's the guy you got?" the boy called Chris said.

"Oh, he's just the same shrimp you guys caught yesterday, you know, the wimp who managed to get Clovis to fight and you guys got the video of."

Chris blinked. "Oh, him? Octopus something?"

"Yeah, Austen or something like that."

"FOR THE GODS SAKE!" yelled Octavian. "MY NAME IS OCTAVIAN!"

Clarisse and Chris both glanced at him. "Sweet Zeus, he's got a temper, huh?" asked Chris.

"Yeah, he's a really stupid idiot," said Thalia, walking up behind them. "Like most boys."

Reyna silently cursed. If this girl was here, they were probably in trouble. A daughter of Jupiter was very dangerous – and not someone to mess with. Reyna had already received the impression that this girl was _way_ less forgiving than Jason.

Another guy, the son of Apollo from yesterday, appeared. "You again?" he asked.

"What about it?" Octavian snapped.

"Jeez, isn't he touchy, babe," said another girl. She was wearing tons of make up and a _dress_. A daughter of Venus/ Aphrodite, then.

"Drew, shut the Hades up," snapped Thalia. "And what in the name of Hades are you _wearing_?"

"It's called a dress, Thalia babe."

"I know what it is!" growled Thalia. "You look like a freaking Barbie doll! How are you supposed to fight?"

"Well, sweetheart, I'm not going to be fighting," said Drew. "It'll damage my hair."

Reyna's mouth dropped open. _Seriously_?

Apparently Thalia had the same thought, because she shocked the girl over and over again until her hair was spiky. "There we go," she said in a satisfied voice. "You can fix it up after fighting."

Drew glared at her but said nothing just scowled.

"Cut the arguing, princess and punk," interrupted Clarisse. "What do we do with the shrimp now?"

The daughter of Zeus grinned. "Well, I've got an idea…"

The Greeks started whispering while keeping a wary eye on Octavian, who was starting to look very uncomfortable.

Reyna sighed. This was going to be great. And so much for the plan.

**Okay, I knew the ending kind of sucked but I wanted Octavian to get in a little bit more trouble. Do any of you have ideas? I'll be updating another chapter on between April 27 to April 30, so if you have ideas, you'll need to post them quickly.**

**And don't forget you can still answer the question posed in Chapter 29: **_**Who was in that flash of light that gave the demigods time to get to the House? I'll make it a multiple choice question just to make it easier.**_

_**A) Camp Half-Blood**_

_**B) Camp Jupiter**_

_**C) Both Camps**_

_**D) The Olympians**_

_**E) Party Ponies**_

_**F) Minor Gods**_

**Remember, you get a cookie if you guess! Two if you're right. One if you're wrong. And you can vote for more than one.**

**It's interesting, by the way, that nobody has voted for either camp… considering that right now we are having camp drama and it probably needs to get merged someway with the bigger plotline… (although that's no proof of anything, like I said, just saying!)**

**Happy guessing!**


	32. Chapter 32: Reyna

**Chapter 32! I never thought I would make it this far. I expect the whole story will end somewhere around Chapter 40. But thanks for the encouragement everyone! **

**Disclaimer: I do not own HoO**

Chapter XXII Reyna

Reyna took another step backwards, away from the Greeks, who looked like they were planning something really, really interesting (in a nasty way). Octavian, being the oblivious idiot as always, just stood there, glaring.

Reyna caught the hints of their discussion as she stepped away. It involved words like "teddy" "video" "stole" "prophecy" and "Rachel". Reyna had to admit, she was curious. Stole? Was that the article of clothing or the verb? Their overall conversation seemed to be based on prophecies and fortunes. Maybe this camp had some kind of seer and they wanted a competition? What was this Greek camp really like?

Octavian opened his mouth to call for the legion when the group suddenly separated. Each demigod had a giant smirk on his or her face. That probably didn't boost Octavian's courage. It didn't boost Reyna's.

The Barbie girl, Drew, smiled seductively at Octavian. That alone managed to shock Reyna. Somebody was actually _flirting_ with Octavian? That was just… just gross.

Octavian didn't look too happy about the smoking looks that were being sent his way. Reyna actually couldn't blame him. Being flirted with was not included in the Roman style of fighting. It would unnerve any legionnaire.

Octavian opened his mouth to call the legion. That was a huge mistake. Barbie lunged forwards, catching him totally off-guard with a kiss to the lips.

When Drew pulled away, Octavian was bright red. And he looked sickened. All Reyna could think was 'EEEEW'.

Octavian gasped for breath, almost collapsing. He looked totally grossed out.

As soon as he regained his breath he yelled, "What was that for?"

"Aw, c'mon, babe," said Drew. "Wasn't that fun?"

The girl's voice had a tinge of charmspeak in it. Reyna silently cursed as she remembered: they didn't have the wax. They hadn't expected another charmspeaker.

Octavian's eyes began to glaze before he blinked the charmspeak away. "Uhhh…" he managed.

Drew pouted. "Aw, c'mon! You didn't like it?"

Octavian only barely managed to shake his head.

The girl sighed before saying, "Thank gods! Just so you know, shrimp, I didn't like it either."

_That's a fast change of tack_, thought Reyna. _One minute she's making out with him, the next, she's telling him he sucks_. Reyna personally preferred the 'he sucks' to the making out. At least she could understand the 'he sucks' bit.

Octavian glared before calling out, "Romans!" Reyna silently sighed. He wasn't supposed to have given the order, but Reyna supposed after being kissed and charmspoken, he was a lot more annoyed.

The lines of Romans started to advance. None of the Greeks so much as looked worried, despite the fact that the sound was jarring. It was a practice that had been started in ancient Rome and continued in New Rome: hobnailed boots. Or rather, boots that made impressive hollow booming noises.

The Chris guy just sighed. "Thalia, you want to do the honours? Since it's your tree and stuff?"

Thalia shrugged. "I suppose," she said. "Borders: keep out Romans."

Suddenly Reyna was pushed backwards by an invisible force. She watched in sheer astonishment as a shimmering wall of light began to form in front of the place she'd been standing in just a moment ago. The wall rippled and shifted every time she looked at it. The Greeks had borders like that? Impressive.

Octavian looked really unnerved now. "Borders?" he asked, in a voice he just managed to keep from quavering.

Clarisse rolled her eyes. "No freaking duh, shrimp. Your camp doesn't have borders to keep out monsters? 'Cos ours do. The Fleece helps, too."

"Yeah," said Thalia. "Makes it more pliable, too. Like, it can keep out monsters, or Romans, or both. It might be able to keep out _minor_ minor gods too. Never tried it, though. Not with Dionysus as camp director."

Octavian scowled. "So this light thingy keeps Romans out? Does it keep Romans _in_?"

Drew shrugged. "Scrawny boy, why don't you go find out?" She took out a hairbrush and started brushing it.

Several senators ran up next to Reyna, now that the Greeks were focused away from them. "What's happened?" asked one.

"It looks like the Greeks have made some sort of barrier to keep us out," answered Reyna.

Larry scowled. "How the Pluto are we supposed to get in now?"

"You can't," Chris stated bluntly. "Well, you might be able to remove the borders completely if you had an Olympian on your side, but I don't think there are any other ways."

"Great," muttered the Fourth Cohort's centurion.

"I wonder how the gods are," Thalia said absently. "Maybe Athena's managed to stop shifting around."

_Athena_. That made Reyna wonder how Annabeth was doing.

Octavian scowled. "Scandalous! Absolutely scandalous! Children of Athena! We know the correct place for a goddess like her, but you Greeks actually honour her!"

A newcomer, who Reyna hadn't noticed until then, said, "Exactly what do you mean by scandalous?"

Octavian scowled. "She broke her oath!"

Now he had caught all the Greeks attention. "What oath?" asked Will – it was Will, right?

"For gods' sake!" said Octavian. "She's supposed to be a _virgin_ goddess. But she has children!"

There was a second of incredulous silence before they all started laughing. Drew even fell onto the ground.

"What?" demanded Octavian.

"Oh my gods," managed Thalia. "You seriously think that? Let me get this straight with you – Athena was, is, and forever will be, a maiden goddess."

Now Reyna was thoroughly confused. If Athena was still a maiden, then how did she have children?

"If she's a maiden, then how come she has children?" demanded Octavian.

"I'll let Malcolm explain," laughed Thalia. "He's the expert, after all."

The new guy, who Reyna assumed was Malcolm, sighed. "Flavian or whatever you call yourself, you know the myths, right?"

Octavian stared at him. "You're a son of Athena. And yes, I know the myths," he added hastily.

"Great," said Malcolm. "I presume you know the one about how Athena was born?"

Reyna frowned. What did that have to do with it? She knew that one, though. Something about coming out of Jupiter's head fully formed?

"Something about springing out of – " Octavian was cut off by Malcolm who hastily said, "Yeah, we don't need to go any further, you obviously know it. Now, children of Athena are born the same way. We're literally _brain children_… get it?"

Octavian's mouth dropped open as he realised what Malcolm was saying. Reyna was feeling the same way.

"So… she's still a maiden?" stammered Octavian.

"That's about right," a new voice said.

The Greeks spun. Reyna stared.

The new person was slim, with blonde hair tied back in a ponytail. She looked about twenty-five or so. And she had startlingly grey eyes – like a storm cloud.

"Mom?" gasped Malcolm. "But – the – but…" he stammered.

Athena inclined her head. "Let's just say I decided to defy the rules for a day," she said.

All the Greeks bowed. "If I may ask, Lady Athena… why are you here?" asked Thalia.

Athena's expression turned more serious, if that was possible. "Your friends… are in a bit of a tight spot," she finally said.

Thalia's eyes widened. "Are they okay?"

"They're fine. In two days' time, they will need your help. However, the ancient lands seem to have distorted time a little. Don't worry, it's not Kronos. But right now, they are two days ahead of you and they need you to be there if they are to enter the House of Hades."

Clarisse's eyes widened. "So you're saying…"

Athena nodded. "You'll be teleporting. It isn't going to be good for your stomachs, though. Just so you know."

"The entire camp?"

"And the Romans. You will have to work together… however much I do not like the notion."

"Uhhh… okay?"

Athena clapped her hands and a golden flash surrounded them – all of them. Reyna felt as if she was being vaporized and reformed.

When her vision cleared, she was in the middle of a battlefield with the Romans and the Greeks. She could spot some of the seven over the monster's heads.

"Some of the minor gods have agreed to lend you some indirect help," Athena was saying to Malcolm. "As for me… I must be taking my statue. Apollo will be able to help the seven after they break the charm over Hades' domain. It is not my fight today. But take care." Malcolm and the rest of the Greeks nodded.

Athena zipped off towards the Argo, which Reyna noticed was parked nearby. The monsters got over their shock and charged.

This was going to be a very different day.

**Okay! So, it was both camps (and the minor gods). I'll give the cookies next chapter because:**

**a) I'm tired**

**b) It's nighttime**

**c) I've got school tomorrow**

**d) I'm too lazy**

**So that's it. The cookies will be in the next chapter (if you review, you will also get a cookie!)**


	33. Chapter 33: Jason

**COOKIE TIME! SO…**

**For rrfanman: (::) (::) (::)**

**For HorseHat23: (::) (::) (::)**

**For Olympus97: (::)**

**For mae2551: (::) (::) (::)**

**For IcecreamRULES: (::) (::) (::) **

**For Athensbelle: (::)**

**That's a grand total of 14 cookies! Everyone who reviewed: THANKS!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own HoO *sigh***

Chapter XXXIII Jason

Jason stared at the lake of fire, wondering how they were going to get across without either burning or getting killed by traps. Sure, Nico had said that the traps were deactivated by Hades/Pluto kids' presence, but Jason still wasn't certain that they weren't all going to get a one-way trip to the Underworld. He figured only Leo would be able to survive the fire.

Beside him, Frank sucked in his breath. "So… er, how do we do this?" asked Frank.

Nico was studying the fire, but at that he started. "Huh? Well, I reckon we should go in single file, me at the front and Hazel at the back, so everyone's covered."

"OK," said Leo. "What kind of fire is this, by the way?"

"Hellfire," answered Nico. "It'll hurt even you, although it won't burn you. Hang on a sec… ah, here we go."

Jason looked at Nico, to see that he was staring at a plaque on the wall, carved in Greek. "What does that say?" he asked Piper.

Piper bit her lip. "I can't read it, somehow… it's like the words are obscured by something."

Jason frowned before turning back to Nico, who was staring intently at the plaque. "Can you read it?" he asked, curious.

Nico nodded before tearing his gaze away from the plaque and saying something in Greek. But somehow Jason could understand it. Nico had said, "_I, Nico di Angelo, son of Hades, grant permission for the gods of the Olympian pantheon to enter this sacred place_."

Apparently everyone around him had understood, too, because they all frowned. "Why would you need to say that?" asked Leo.

It was Coach Hedge who replied. "Valdez, gods can't enter each other's domain without invitation. Basically, Death Boy has just allowed the gods to come in. It wouldn't have been nice if we found out that there was a god all along and he –or she- couldn't get in."

"Oh," said Leo sheepishly.

Was it Jason's imagination, or was the wall of the shrine getting lighter? No, it was definitely true. The dark marble was getting, just slightly, lighter in colour.

"Guys, can we just get this done and over with?" asked Piper.

Jason fully agreed. The sooner this was over, the better. It just felt so wrong, him being here. Jason didn't really know why. He just knew he wasn't welcome.

Nico nodded and stepped onto the narrow path, straight in front of a hole.

The hole made a humming sound before a slab of black marble fell in front of it, blocking off whatever unpleasant stuff had been about to come out.

Nico looked more than a little relieved. Well, Jason was also more than a little relieved. And looking around, he could see everyone looked relieved.

"Okay, so we better go in single file," said Hazel. "Leo, you can be next after Nico. Then Jason, Piper, Coach Hedge, Frank and me. Is that all right?"

Jason nodded. "Sure."

Nico moved along the path and Leo stepped on after him. The slab of marble didn't vanish.

Nico moved further on, Leo following. The marble began to vibrate.

"Uh, Nico," Jason called. "I don't think you should go any further. The marble looks like it's going to explode."

Nico frowned. "Probably moved off its radar," he said. He moved backwards, Leo doing the same. After five steps, the marble stopped vibrating.

Jason walked onto the path, past the hole, until he was right beside Leo. Piper followed him on, then Coach Hedge, Frank, and finally Hazel. Nothing happened.

Nico started walking again, the rest of them following. They passed another two holes without incident.

Then Hazel moved out of the radar on the first hole.

The result was instantaneous. The slab of marble covering the hole shattered, the pieces falling into the hellfire lake. At the same time, a shower of silvery liquid spurted out, covering the narrow path.

"Well…" said Jason. "I don't think we'll be going back that way."

"Uh-huh," agreed Hazel. "That's liquid mercury. It's poisonous and all that. Step in it, and you're as good as dead."

Frank winced. "Okay… right now, am I glad that we have you guys."

They continued moving in single file. As soon as Hazel went out of the holes' radar, the marble would explode, sending shrapnel and horrid stuff that Jason didn't want to know about out. After a while, they learned to ignore them.

They reached the wide bronze doors with no hassle (if exploding marble and liquid mercury didn't count). Nico pushed slightly and the doors swung wide open.

This room was pitch black. There wasn't one light in the area. What was more, there was a creepy chill emanating from it. Jason involuntarily shivered.

"This goes straight to the Underworld," said Nico. "Try not to fall in."

"Try not to fall in?" Piper half-yelped. "I can't even see the other end of the room!"

"Leo? You mind doing the fire?"

"Will it even work?" But Leo lit his index finger on fire anyway.

The thin beam of light illuminated the room, revealing a twisting path in a room with no seemingly obvious traps.

"Stick to the path," warned Nico, "even if it's full of traps. Step off and you fall into the Underworld. Mind you, I'm not even sure which part of the Underworld this goes to, so be really, really careful. You could end up in my bedroom, or the Fields of Punishment, or right in the throne room. My advice is that you don't try."

Jason nodded along with the others as they set out along the twisting path. This time, the traps were concealed in giant chasms that de-activated when Nico went close, covered by a huge slab of marble.

The next sets of traps involved skeleton-ridden grounds, automatons that spat black fire and the most dangerous of all – two dozen milky waterfalls spilling from holes in the walls.

Leo, who could sense some bit of the traps, said, confused, "There aren't any traps in this one."

"That's because there aren't," answered Nico. "This floor doesn't need traps."

"So you could just cross with no hassle?" asked Coach Hedge, puzzled.

"Not really," said Nico. "This floor doesn't need traps because the source of the water is the River Lethe, in the Underworld."

Jason frowned. Lethe…

"Isn't that the river of forgetfulness?" he blurted out.

Hazel nodded. "Touch one drop, and your memory is gone. Here's some free advice: don't touch it."

Jason decided to take that advice. He didn't need to lose his memory again.

They had to row two leaky boats across the plunge pools of the waterfalls. Each time they went close to one, everyone had to lean away from the spray. Frank was the only one who had it easy; he just turned into a tiny bug and flew across without having to bother about the spray, since he was too small to hit.

"Gods," gasped Hazel as the boat lurched sickeningly. "I think I'm going to be sick."

When they reached the other side, Hazel, Piper and Leo were all green. The ride had been even worse than the storm when they were flying. That had been bad. This was pure bad. At least in the storm they hadn't been worried about losing their memories.

Nico suddenly froze just before opening the next set of Celestial bronze doors. "Is it me, or is there something bad behind it?" he asked Hazel.

Hazel frowned as she concentrated. "There's definitely something nasty behind it. Any ideas?"

"Well, it could be the giant," said Jason. His mind was racing as he thought about the dream he'd had only a day ago. The servant of Gration had been told to… _to make sure they die in the attempt to reach these Doors_. And the servant had said something about keeping half the monsters back.…

"There's an army of monsters behind those doors," Jason said, surprised at how level his voice sounded.

Nico froze. "You sure?"

Jason nodded. "In my dream, the servant was told to make sure we died before we reached the Doors. And he said something about keeping half the monsters back. I reckon there's a very high chance we'll be facing an army in this one."

Nico looked worried. "That's not good. This is the room filled with sharp stuff. There are shards of glass, tips of knives… the point is, if you stray from either me or Hazel, you'll get impaled on something."

Frank winced. "But if there's sharp stuff, won't the monsters get hurt too?"

"Yeah, they would," said Nico. "I guess our Bane of Artemis doesn't really care much for his minions getting hurt."

Piper sighed as she unslung her cornucopia and drew her dagger. "Guess we'll have to fight through this one," she said.

Coach nodded as he took out his club. "Well, guys? What are we waiting for?"

Jason drew his _gladius_. Leo took out a pair of hammers. Frank took out a bow and arrow, and Hazel drew her _spatha_. Nico pulled out his black sword, before pushing open the doors.

Jason briefly noticed another set of wide bronze doors and shards of glass littering the ground, before there was a roaring noise.

An army of monsters charged, and the fight began.

**The demigods have reached pretty far into the House of Hades now. So here's my next question for you guys (I don't know who should do this yet)**

**Who should kill Gration? Athena said Apollo would help, so God – check. But who should be the demigod? (He/ She will be part of the Seven, so no, it won't be Nico, sadly)**

**Please vote:**

**A) for Leo Valdez**

**B) for Hazel Levesque**

**C) for Jason Grace**

**D) for Piper McLean**

**E) for Frank Zhang**


	34. Chapter 34: Frank

**Thanks for the reviews everyone! PLEASE DO NOT KILL ME! I had super-important tests called NAPLAN last week (check Google) and I had to do millions of practice tests. I had no time! SORRY!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own HoO**

Chapter XXIV Frank

Frank caught brief glimpses of the room/corridor/hall/place before all the monsters decided to charge and Frank had to start fighting. He made sure he was close to Hazel at all times. There were two main reasons for that: one, according to Nico, this place was full of sharp objects and if Frank stayed close to a child of Hades/Pluto he wouldn't get hurt, but the main reason, two, was that he was Hazel's boyfriend and it was a boyfriend's duty to protect his girlfriend, right?

Frank shot a _dracaenae_ through a chink in her armour and grabbed another arrow, taking a brief scan of the place.

The hall was in absolute chaos. Monsters were attacking with no formation whatsoever. More than one monster crashed and stumbled when the spiked gems dug in to them. Frank spotted a bunch of Earthborn disintegrating when a panel in the marble walls vanished and high-velocity jade fragments shot out.

For the first time, Frank realised this hall was a lot more complicated than he'd thought. Apart from the spikes buried in the ground, there were also traps along the walls. Then, to make it more complicated, a Greek fire bomb exploded. The weird thing was, the flames were black. Frank guessed this was a more dangerous version of hellfire. The good news was that the explosion took out a phalanx of _dracaenae_.

Frank followed Hazel, shooting any monsters coming for her, as Hazel focused. Frank reckoned that, with so much precious gems littering the place, her brain was going into overload trying to encompass them all. Frank wondered if she could make the jewels explode.

A second later, his question was answered as a spike a few feet away from him shattered, sending dozens of deadly sharp pieces flying out. One grazed Frank slightly on the arm. He didn't have time to think about it, though, when a telkhine tried to stab him. He killed it with an arrow to the heart.

Frank saw Jason and Piper both floating a few feet in the air, just low enough to not drain Jason and just high enough to skim over the spikes. Nico and Leo were fighting together, Nico with his sword and Leo with fire. Frank had heard what the Romans thought of Nico's fighting skills. It definitely didn't match up to this.

Coach Hedge was just within Hazel's radar, having a field day smashing monsters away with his bat. Hazel herself was concentrating on shattering the spikes into shards of dangerous projectiles. And on moving forwards; they were all trying to do that.

Nico and Leo destroyed the pocket of monsters around them and got a few feet forwards before another pocket enveloped them. Piper shot a telkhine with a high-speed packet of fish food, which Frank thought was strange, but seconds later, the telkhine snatched it up and began frantically shoving fish food into his mouth.

Frank shot an Earthborn with an arrow just as another shard of precious gem exploded. The air around Hazel became dotted with fragments that she sent spinning towards a Laestrygonian giant.

When the monsters were starting to die down, a manticore appeared, in his monster form, grinning evilly. The weird thing was, he was looking at Nico.

Nico's back was turned at that moment, but Jason spotted the movement and yelled, "Nico!"

Nico spun and stared at the manticore. For a split second, Frank had the creepy feeling the manticore and Nico knew each other.

When the manticore finally spoke, it was in a hissing voice. "Nico di Angelo."

Nico's eyes darkened. "Dr Thorn."

Leo made a noise in his throat. "Dr Thorn?" he asked. "What kind of a name is that?"

A spiked missile shot out from the manticore. Nico sliced it out of the air. Around them, the battle seemed to be slowly dying down. Frank dodged a sword strike from a telkhine and stabbed it with the sharp end of his bow. He didn't know if it would work, but the telkhine disintegrated.

Slowly, the remaining monsters began closing in around the manticore, or Dr Thorn. The manticore's eyes glinted with amusement as he stared at Nico, who stared right back with hatred in his eyes.

"Do you guys, uh, know each other from before?" asked Piper, a little uncertainly.

Nico's eyes flashed. "He was my vice-principal."

Leo winced. "That sucks."

Abruptly, the manticore released a maelstrom of missiles. Jason deflected them with the wind, sending the spikes crashing back into the remnants of his army. It was only them that Frank noticed how well they had done. There were only thirty or so monsters remaining from the original two hundred. After the spike rain, there were about fifteen.

The manticore snarled and charged Nico, at the same minute the remainder of his army charged. Frank lost sight of his friends as he was forced to use a sword to chop his way through the monsters. Piper shot the monsters with heavy coconuts, sending them toppling back into one another. Jason sent a gust of wind, Leo shot fire, Coach Hedge smashed happily away, and Hazel shattered diamonds to use as projectiles.

When the dust cleared, the monsters were down, as well as the manticore. The room was empty again except for them and the monster dust. Frank could now clearly see the precious gems jutting out of the floor.

"Come on," said Hazel, jolting him out of his stupor by taking his hand. "We need to keep moving."

The set of wide bronze doors swung inwards smoothly, revealing another waterfall room. This one didn't look as bad as the Lethe, but Frank reckoned it came from the Underworld too.

"Acheron," said Nico. "Watch out."

"River of Pain?" Frank asked.

"Yep," said Hazel. "It'll hurt… a lot… if you get a drop on you."

"Guys?" Jason asked as they clambered into the tiny cramped boat.

"Yeah?" asked Leo.

"How many corridors are in this place?"

Frank froze. That was a very good question. And to be honest, he had no idea. Frank glanced at Nico.

Nico shrugged. "It's an underground temple. The rooms could go on forever. Luckily, it doesn't. But the Doors are all the way at the back of the temple, so it could be a pretty long time before we get there."

Piper groaned. "You don't even know how many rooms are here? We could wander forever!"

Hazel sighed as their very cramped boat started for the opposite edge. Frank was on the prow as a seagull. It seemed appropriate.

"There's probably less than a hundred."

"Gods!"

"Well, I'll assume all the rivers of the Underworld pass through here," said Leo.

Nico nodded. "That's right. Dad didn't have many sacred places in the ancient days, and this one was the biggest, so he made the rivers flow through the back."

Frank silently sighed as a seagull. That sounded harsh. Not being worshipped even though you were an elder Olympian. Then again, all the Romans had stayed away from Pluto's shrine as well as Nico, so he really couldn't say much.

They arrived at the end of the waterfall with no hassle, pushing open the wide bronze doors like before. The next dozen rooms all seemed the same to Frank, who was starting to learn to ignore the traps. They came to the room of the River Phlegethon, which was actually on fire. Dancing black flames burned on the river's surface. The boat there seemed to be heat-proof, but by the gods, the fire _burned_. Even Leo was affected by the sheer strength of the heat.

When they reached the other side, Nico paused, one hand on the bronze doors. "Try not to throw up at the next scene, guys," he said. "And Hazel, it's okay."

Frank opened his mouth to ask Nico what that meant when Nico pushed the doors open and a blast of stale, musty air burst out.

**THAT'S IT! Where do you think they are? **

**Also, the question on who should kill Gration is still open. I've decided to narrow it down a bit to three choices:**

**A) Jason Grace**

**B) Frank Zhang**

**C) Hazel Levesque.**

**Remember, it's not Artemis but Apollo who'll be helping them against the giant.**

**Cookies will be offered to all who answer the question! (even if it's not correct)**


	35. Chapter 35: Frank

**The votes for Gration's defeater so far are:**

**Jason: 1**

**Frank: 0 (poor guy, he hasn't even got one giant dead yet)**

**Hazel: 7 (wow)**

**Disclaimer: I do not own HoO -_-**

Chapter 35 Frank

Frank instinctively recoiled from the blast of stale air. Every nerve in his body screamed, _Get yourself out of here Frank Zhang! This is not your place! Too much death! Get out!_

Frank stood up straight, glancing around the place warily. His instincts were screaming and they weren't usually wrong, so Frank guessed he really was not supposed to be here. Of course, he wasn't supposed to be in a shrine of Hades in the first place.

His first thought was, _This place is big_. Then he realised it wasn't a hall like the other halls, but a wide open field. The smell of sulfur was everywhere. It reminded him of the mortal descriptions of 'Hell', with the brimstone and fires and all that.

Jason looked sick behind him. "Where in the name of Pluto are we?"

Frank noticed for the first time that Nico looked a lot more relaxed here, like he'd been here before or something. And he looked better, as if the place healed him. Musty scent plus field plus sulfur plus 'hell' plus place Nico had been in…

"_We're in the Underworld_?" Frank practically screeched, unable to help himself.

The others all winced at his shrill tone, but right now, Frank couldn't care less. He turned to Nico, stunned.

Nico nodded. "Fields of Punishment. Don't ask me why a shrine goes through here, I don't have a clue. I didn't even realise it until a few corridors ago, when I sensed the Underworld."

Piper looked grossed out. "We're in Punishment? Why couldn't it have been Elysium or something? Did we really have to come here out of all places?"

"I'm agreeing with cupcake on this one," said Coach Hedge. "This place is not good for my health."

Nico just muttered something about satyrs and underground places before he pointed to the distance. "That's our goal."

Frank followed his finger and stared. He hadn't noticed it before, but set into a cave a few minutes away from a rushing, foaming river were a pair of bronze doors, shorter than the others, in the walls themselves. Frank was just glad they didn't have to go into the cave – gods knew what lived there.

"You might want to cover your ears," said Nico, wincing slightly as somebody screamed. "There's a lot of screaming in Punishment. And look away. And try not to throw up."

Frank eyed the place around them and sighed. It would be definitely hard to not throw up. Hazel already looked green. He slipped an arm around her and she clung to it like a lifeline… like his stupid burning stick, Frank thought ruefully.

"Come on," said Nico, setting off.

Shaking his head, Leo trudged after him, his hands in his tool belt tinkering with something – hopefully something to block out the sounds. Piper and Jason followed, looking wide-eyed at their surroundings. Frank guided Hazel along, with Coach following. His girlfriend looked ready to throw up any second. Frank suddenly realised that if she hadn't sacrificed Elysium in her last life, her mother would be here too. That thought made him sick.

They'd only taken a few steps forward when Hedge clamped his hands over his ears. "This is so loud," he groaned. "I'm glad satyrs are reincarnated."

After another few steps, Frank heard what Coach Hedge must have heard – a shrill scream going on and on and on. Hazel slapped her hands over her ears. Leo took out some kind of device which started singing loud enough to block out the sounds, but not loud enough to attract problems. The unfortunate thing was that it was only loud enough to block sounds for him.

Jason leaned over. "Air earplugs," he said. "Do you guys want them?"

Frank and Hazel both nodded frantically. An instant later, the sounds became muffled. Coach Hedge sighed with relief. The screams were a lot less obvious now. Nico was the only one who seemed unaffected.

_The guy lives here about half the year_, Frank reminded himself. _He's probably used to it_. Then he winced at the idea of living here for half a year.

They continued moving along, the earplugs successfully blocking out the sounds. Unfortunately Frank could still see, and he reckoned he would be mentally ill for life as he saw what was happening. Frank was really, really hoping now that he got into Elysium. Or even Asphodel, as boring as that was. Even oblivion had to be better than this.

Frank watched people running through cactus patches, being doused in lava, chased by hellhounds, even writing essays while a monster watched him. The last one seemed particularly bad. Writing essays were torture for demigods with dyslexia.

Abruptly Piper threw up on the side of the road. Frank didn't blame her. The torture was way too much for him. Then he saw what was ahead and cursed in his mind.

There was a guy strapped to a burning wheel, rolling it along just up ahead. Frank's mythology training kicked in as he realised who it was; Ixion. He vaguely remembered something about Ixion trying to steal Juno from Jupiter. In the myths, he was supposed to have been sent to Tartarus. Apparently Fields of Punishment were used instead.

Jason turned away in disgust. Leo busied himself with another device. Coach Hedge closed his eyes. Hazel grabbed onto Frank, who looked the other way. Nico walked past, completely emotionless, though Frank had the feeling the guy had seen this before, maybe even talked to him, and he didn't want to repeat the experience.

It only got worse. They passed pretty close to Tantalus' place, and even through the earplugs Frank could hear him screaming curses at the gods while sobbing and trying to get some food. It would have been almost funny if Frank hadn't been so freaked out by then, and if Tantalus hadn't looked so pathetic that Frank couldn't find it in him to laugh. And that they were in the Underworld, which was kind of a joy killer.

They passed people burning at the stakes, being buried alive – or dead? – in coins, drowning, even being drawn, hanged and quartered. Frank thought that was in medieval England. Apparently it worked here too – or maybe Western Civilisation had been there when they'd invented that method of death.

Suddenly there was a hill in front of them. Frank heard screaming and cursing at the top. He shook his head. If he'd had a jar where somebody put money in for every curse, he would have been richer than Pluto in less than a day. Frank wondered if Pluto knew.

Nico turned, mouthing the word '_Sisyphus_' to them. Frank recoiled as he remembered that legend. Trickery, deceit… he really hoped Gaia had forgotten about Sisyphus. The guy could probably outsmart Saturn if he was really pushed to it, and Gaia could _definitely_ be persuasive. Then he hoped Jupiter hadn't heard that thought.

They hiked up the hill, Sisyphus staring at them for a few minutes. Then he saw Nico and his eyes narrowed. He said something, but Frank couldn't hear through his earplugs. Nico just ignored him, continuing on, his dark eyes darker than usual.

When Hazel passed Sisyphus started, before trying to talk to her. Hazel looked past him. Frank hoped she hadn't heard anything. His cursing was bad enough.

They made it past the hill safely, arriving next to the cave in almost no time. Frank wondered why it had seemed like seconds. Maybe there was an Underworld Mean Time?

Nico gestured for Jason to take off the earplugs from everyone. The sounds of the Underworld rushed back into Frank's hearing. He hoped this was over quickly.

"Be quiet," whispered Nico. "Melinoe lives here."

Piper shivered. "Goddess of ghosts?"

"That's her. Don't anger her too much. She can be one freaky immortal sister."

Leo shivered. "She has control over ghosts?" he asked.

"More like, she can turn into the ghost of someone you know."

Frank thought about his mother. If Melinoe could turn into her… he didn't want to imagine what she'd be able to get him to do.

They had almost reached the doors when a person – goddess – drifted out. Frank froze, forgetting about what he had thought minutes ago. His mother…

Hazel caught her breath, Leo's eyes widened, Piper recoiled and Jason gasped. Nico had to forcibly look away. Frank was caught by the trance and had almost gone over when Coach Hedge yelled, "DIE!"

He waved his club around crazily at the goddess. It was enough. Frank snapped out of his trance, like the others, and they bolted through the doors, Coach Hedge on their heels. They slammed the doors shut, listening to the cries of Melinoe behind them.

"Thanks, Coach," said Leo.

**Yeah, I know, the ending was not great. But I wanted to include the Demigod Files in some way to link HoO a bit more with the first series. And since they weren't in Elysium, it wouldn't be Macaria they met, but Melinoe. Did you like it?**

**Please keep voting for Gration's defeater!**


	36. Chapter 36: Frank

**Hi! I'm back! I know I said I'll be on break until July, but consider this a nice little summer/winter solstice present from me (it is still the solstice right?)**

**Next update will **_**probabl**_**y be on 1****st**** July (ooh, the Kalends of July!). Not certain, though.**

**Anyway… Hazel is totally trashing the others in the 'Gration killer vote'. You may still vote, by the way! (it's until he actually does get defeated)**

**Disclaimer: I do not own HoO**

Chapter XXXVI Frank

If there was one good thing about Melinoe's appearance and how she had spooked them, Frank decided, it was that Frank had forever stopped thinking fauns were useless beggars by the roadside. He had started to think of the satyrs anyway as heroic goats wanting to bash things up. Maybe not all satyrs, but with Hedge as an example, well…

Frank mentally shook himself out of his thoughts and focused again on the task ahead of them. This room was by far the scariest room he had encountered in this death shrine. It definitely won prizes for spookiest room. And this was after Melinoe's spook.

This room wasn't dark, or shadowy, or deathlike, or even made out of black marble like all the other rooms. It didn't even have traps! That was what scared Frank the most. Surely every room in the shrine had traps?

Of course, this room was an exception to just about every rule Frank had concocted in his head for the building. It wasn't black marble. It wasn't dark. It wasn't creepy in the This-is-the-Underworld-and-you-will-die-soon sense. No, this room was _bright_!

The creator of this hall had clearly wanted to scare the people inside to Hades. The walls were green marble, seriously contrasting with all the black before. There were _paintings_ on the walls. And _murals_. Of _pomegranates._ How more weird could you get?

"What the Hades?" Leo finally summed up what everyone was thinking.

Hazel shivered. "That was Melinoe, the goddess of –"

"No! This hall! It's – it's – it's _green_! And _bright_! And – and – _cheery_! I thought this was a death shrine!"

Jason and Piper looked as if they wanted to agree, and Frank had to say he wasn't far behind them.

Nico sighed. "Leo, the shrine is dedicated to Hades and _Persephone_. Do I have to spell it out for you?"

Frank gulped. "So this is Persephone's room?" he asked, barely managing to keep his voice from wavering slightly.

Hazel nodded. "Sure looks like it. I mean, it's green, and there are pomegranates around. I'd say so, yeah."

Coach Hedge's eyes widened. "What! Do the pomegranates count as Underworld food? 'Cos if they don't, I'm eating one! Always wanted to try it out!"

Nico shook his head. "Even if we aren't in the Underworld, these pomegranates are still fully Underworld food. Eat one, and you won't leave. Actually, it'd probably be worse. Since you weren't in the Underworld when you ate them, you'd technically be stuck in this shrine forever."

Hedge hesitated. "Well… I don't know about that. No thanks."

"Come on," said Nico. "The sooner we get away from this room, the better. Persephone hates me."

They crossed the threshold to the next room and found a gushing waterfall. Nico told them the river was the river Cocytus. Something about wailing and lamentations? They got past without any hassle, and continued moving.

The weird thing was, the next dozen rooms _all_ had no traps, and were _all_ dedicated to Persephone. There were images of her on the walls, images of her and Hades on the walls, and images of her and Ceres – _Demeter_ – on the walls. There were also tons of pictures of cereal painted on them. For some reason, Nico seemed traumatised by the images of cereal.

"I'll be glad when we get to the Styx," said Nico, after what seemed like the ten hundred billionth room of Persephone.

"Why?" Frank asked, puzzled. He wasn't alone in that sentiment – Piper was nodding as well, while Jason looked curious.

Nico sighed. "After the Styx, there won't be any more rooms of Persephone. In fact, the rooms more or less begin to end there."

"So we're finally getting somewhere?" asked Leo.

"Yup."

"Thank gods," said Jason, looking relieved. "No offense, Nico, but I will be glad to get out of here."

"None taken," Nico said, waving a hand. "Most living people avoid places of death. Come on, I think I can hear the Styx."

They trudged on for about another billion rooms to Frank. It was enormous, this place. Frank wondered if this shrine went all the way to the depth of the earth. Then he banished that thought. Frank did not need to go further into Gaea's clutches. He did not even want to think about that idea.

Abruptly, the sound of rushing water filled Frank's ears. He looked at his friends. Hazel was turning around, trying to find the source. Piper was staring forward. Leo was spinning around, searching for the sound, and Jason was scanning the walls. Coach Hedge was muttering something that sounded like "about time" and Frank realised the satyr's ears would have probably heard it a long time before this. Nico was heading towards the pair of doors with a lighter expression on his face.

"Come on!" he called. "That's the Styx!"

They all rushed towards the doors, pushing them open, and found themselves facing a roaring black river that churned with whirlpools of rubbish. Frank saw a college diploma, an ancient wedding ring, a broken doll and several drink cartons.

The boat was moored a little to their left. It was much smaller than the others – it would only have enough room for three, four at the most.

Leo barely glanced at the boat before he said, "We won't all fit."

Hedge rolled his eyes. "Duh, Sherlock."

"Right," said Nico. "The way I see it, four of us will have to fit inside. Frank, I think you should turn into some kind of bird so you don't get splashed. Jason, you'll have to take someone and fly over. There's no way we'll fit otherwise."

Frank turned into a seagull and flew to the other side as Jason took Piper's hand and levitated them over. Leo, Hedge, Nico and Hazel clambered into the tiny boat.

After five minutes where Frank watched his girlfriend anxiously as the tiny boat spun and rocked in the pools, they hit land. Frank helped Hazel up as the other demigods staggered to their feet. Obviously, the boat had not given the best ride in the world.

The pair of bronze doors glided open, revealing a plain room. "No traps," announced Leo after placing his hand on the floor.

They made their way through cautiously. They were almost at the next pair of doors when Frank spotted a black marble plate embedded into the bronze. It was delicately carved with an Ancient Greek inscription.

He glanced at Piper, who was silently translating the text. After she'd finished, Piper said, "That's a weird inscription."

"What does it say?" asked Jason.

"'_Guardians of the Night beware, the shades of spirits lurk here. The watchers of all shall be your next, careful they are indeed the best. To pass requires qualities of all, to fail means death for all. Caution, stranger, beware your cause. They will be your downfall if they give no applause._' Weird, right?"

"Actually," said Leo with a frown, "I thought that was quite clear. The sentinel thingys in the first inscription are going to be our next challenge, right? But I thought they guarded the Doors."

"_Gration_ is now guarding the Doors," corrected Nico. "And the sentinels are there to stop the unworthy. They're in the second-last room of the shrine, which according to this text says it's the next room. And since Jason's dream definitely showed Gration, he'll probably be in the last room, the room with the Doors in it."

"Okay," said Piper. "The first writing said the guardians can be tricked, right? So… I charmspeak them?"

"If they decide our cause is right," said Nico, "you won't need to. Hopefully, it is."

The doors swung open, but if this was the sentinel room, Frank was not impressed. It was very small, and very plain. Not even close to matching the first rooms, or even the Persephone rooms.

"This is wrong," said Jason. "I thought the guardians were supposed to be here?"

The sentence had barely left Jason's lips when two statues materialised out of thin air, right in front of them.

Both guardians studied them, before, in a voice that sound like scraping rock over iron, "We are here."

Frank silently groaned.

**DUN DUN DUN! Will they get past the guardians? I've got a fairly good idea of what should happen with the guardians and all. Also, I am VERY glad that I did get it right! The first POV is Hazel's! (SoS) Keep voting, and I'll update on roughly July 1****st****, by which time I hope I will have gotten at least 7 reviews. Note: I will **_**not**_** update until I have those reviews, even if October 8****th**** passes.**

**Please Review!**


	37. Chapter 37: Hazel

**Thank you everyone for the reviews! Just four words to say:**

**You guys.**

**Are.**

**Amazing.**

**Oh, and happy Kalends of July! Today is Jason's birthday! Let's say hi!**

**Me: Hi Jason!**

**Jason: Hi!**

**Me: How's your saving-the-world thing going on?**

**Jason: Uh…**

**Me: Yeah, I don't own HoO, blah blah blah.**

**(You may have noticed that I'm abnormally bright and bubbly today. Well, duh, I'm on HOLIDAYS!)**

Chapter XXXVII Hazel

Hazel did not like what she was seeing. The two guardian-statue-automatons were huge. They filled up the rest of the tiny room. They also had very, very large, sharp and dangerous-looking swords. And her senses told her the guardians had been crafted out of diamond, which was practically indestructible. If it came to a fight in this tiny underground chamber, they would lose. Badly.

"We are the guardians," said the first one. "We will decide."

"I already figured that out, thanks," muttered Leo. "Get on with it."

Hazel winced. She had a very bad feeling that the statues did not like disrespectful people.

"State your names and purpose," declared the second guardian.

Nico stepped forward. "Uh, my name's Nico di Angelo, son of Hades. That's Jason, son of Jupiter. The satyr is Coach Hedge. Hazel's a daughter of Pluto, and the guy next to her is Frank, son of Mars. Jason's girlfriend is Piper, daughter of Aphrodite. The guy with the magic toolbelt is Leo, son of Hephaestus. And we're here to close the Doors of Death."

The statues studied them coldly. One of them looked at her.

Suddenly Hazel was spinning through her memories, but this didn't feel like a blackout. It was as if somebody was inside her head, shuffling through her memories to see if there was anything useful. Hazel saw New Orleans, Sammy, her mother, her father, Nico, Frank, Percy, Arion, Annabeth, Gaia, Alcyoneus, Polybotes, Jason, Leo, Piper, everyone she knew was being pulled out of her memories for the guardians to scan.

Abruptly the guardians pulled out. Hazel collapsed onto the ground, feeling sick.

Piper looked as if she was on the verge of throwing up. Leo's crazy expression had turned dark. Jason's eyes weren't their normal blue, but stormy and dark. Her boyfriend was sitting beside her with a nauseous expression on his face. And Nico… gods, Nico looked the worst out of them. His pale complexion had turned even paler, and he looked stunned. Apparently Nico hadn't known the statues could do the memory trick, or he hadn't expected it to be so traumatising.

Only Coach Hedge seemed to be unaffected. The satyr was fingering his club and his expression yelled "Cool! Show me more! I wanna revisit battle scenes!"

The first guardian looked down at them before saying, "Your heart is pure."

"Your motive is true," agreed the second guardian.

"Then can we pass?" coughed Frank.

"No."

"Wait, what?" demanded Jason.

The statues' eyes turned from black to clear gold. "Eidolon," gasped Piper.

"But I melted you!" yelled Leo. "Back in Rome!"

The first eidolon laughed. "Pathetic. You think those three weaklings were the only ones?"

"They were weak. We are not. We will destroy you," the second one said.

"But… they said the Earth Mother sent only three, the strongest!" stammered Hazel.

"Ha! They were liars, fools. The Earth Mother, not have backup? Ha!" laughed the first eidolon. There was a cold, cruel light in its eyes.

"Guys," Hazel whispered. "Those automatons are diamond. We won't be able to just cut them down."

"Great," sighed Nico. "Wonderful. Just what we need."

"Hazel, can you control the diamond?" asked Frank, ignoring Nico's comment.

Hazel frowned. "I can try… I think so."

The first statue jerked one arm to the side, then the other, before the eidolon brought the arms back to normal. "A good try, Hazel Levesque. But you cannot control us."

"Drat," muttered Leo. "It would have been great to just force them out of the way. Now what? Sit down with them for a cup of tea and a nice chat?"

Hazel's mind whirled, snatching on to the last word Leo said. _Chat_.

Talk, she realised. Speaking.

_At the Doors speaks charm the dove. The guardians deceived and gateway closed._

Dove. Charmspeak. Guardians deceived.

Jason had apparently come to the same conclusion as Hazel, because he whispered, "Piper! You need to charmspeak them!"

"What?"

'"_At the Doors speaks charm the dove_'!" hissed Jason.

"Beauty Queen, he's right," snapped Leo. "Just do it!"

"Finished your obituary?" sneered the second eidolon.

Piper stood up. "Stay away. Drop the weapons."

Hazel suddenly found herself with the strong urge to drop her _spatha_ and leave.

Apparently the eidolons felt the same way. The first one drew his sword and dropped it. The second one backed away. Hazel quickly took the opportunity to levitate the black diamond sword and throw it behind her. The doors behind her were still open, and she flung it backwards as hard as she could.

She heard it go _ker-sploosh_ in the River Styx. Apparently they hadn't closed those doors either.

As soon as the diamond sword dropped into the Styx, the eidolons' eyes unglazed. They stared at Piper with hate.

"Daughter of the dove," growled the eidolon who'd lost his sword. "You will be the first to die."

They both charged. Hazel cursed and sent out her senses, desperately hoping to at least slow them down so Piper could get another chance at charmspeak.

The second eidolon skidded to a stop. The first one kept going. Hazel felt a little drained from stopping the huge mass of stone.

At least she'd stopped the more important one. The first eidolon had no sword.

"Stop!" commanded Piper.

Both eidolons froze and turned to look at her. "You will leave," she commanded. "You will let us through. We are friends of yours. You will let us through."

"You are friends of ours," repeated the first eidolon.

"We will let you through," said the second.

"Drop the weapons," Piper said.

The eidolons hesitated.

"Drop them!"

They obeyed.

"Now, let us through."

The eidolons parted, giving access to the small pair of doors on the far side. Hazel could feel it now. The aura of death around it was shockingly intense. Being Thanatos', she had believed they would emit a strong aura, but Hazel was wrong. The Doors didn't emit a strong aura. They sent out pulses, blasts of incredibly intense waves of deathly radiation. Nico clearly felt it too, because there was a look of awe as they approached the second-last pair of doors in her father's shrine. Hazel knew what would be behind those doors. Gration. And an exit out of Tartarus, where they might see Percy and Annabeth again. Hazel silently prayed they'd made it.

The eidolons stayed still as they marched through the middle. Leo paused with his hands on the door.

"Do we lock ourselves in that room? It won't be a fair fight if the eidolons can help."

"Lock it," decided Jason. "We're smaller than the giant. We'll have a better mobility advantage. How big is the last room, anyway?"

"Really big," answered Nico. "Like, not-as-big-as-the-throne-room, but bigger than the twin giant's storeroom. Hippodrome, whatever."

"Hypogeum," corrected Piper. "But yeah… do you mean with the stuff inside or without?"

"Without."

"That's a big room."

"Okay," said Jason. "So, the plan is that we lock ourselves in a hypogeum-sized room, attack the giant, try get Percy and Annabeth, and pray for another miracle?"

"Looks like it, Grace."

"There are a lot of things that could go wrong with that plan," noted Hazel.

"I wish we had a child of Athena here," muttered Nico. "Annabeth, why did you have to go drop into Tartarus?"

Under different circumstances, Hazel would have laughed. But now, a few seconds off from facing a giant, with no divine help in sight, with Percy and Annabeth possibly finally coming back after weeks of their absence, and with the possibility that someone had to stay behind to close the Doors, Hazel felt like there was no chance of happiness anywhere anymore. The expectation was going to drive her mad.

Fortunately, before that could happen, Leo kicked the doors open. The first thing that caught Hazel's eyes were the pair of doors sitting innocently on the far side of the room, emitting waves of death – and wide open.

The second thing was the very large giant's shadow looming over the floor.

Hazel almost thought it was funny that she missed the giant and focused on the Doors.

Then they stepped in.

**TA DA! I know, I'm evil for putting up such a giant (hehe, no pun intended) cliffhanger. Sue me. I like cliffhangers… when I know what will happen next. (Actually, I don't have a clue yet, which is why I'll be dreaming.) Yeah… Well, this chapter is the last possible one for votes on Gration's defeater. Hazel is winning by a mile and a half so far, so chances are it'll be Hazel + god VS Gration. (I know I revealed the god earlier, but I'm too lazy to write up the name. Go search for it… somewhere in the last few Reyna chapters, I think.)**

**Waiting for reviews to hit 115 (that's another 6 reviews. PLEASE? *puppy eyes look*)**

**Cheers. **

**~Olympusseriesisawesome**

**P.S. I'll remove the A/N on the 3****rd**** of July. **

**P.P.S. HOLIDAYS! WOOHOO!**


	38. Chapter 38: Hazel

**Everyone who reviewed, THANK YOU! I decided to give this as an early treat (And because I'm in a good mood) The reviews really do encourage me (A LOT)**

**The 4****th**** of July was yesterday, wish I was at Camp for the fireworks. They must have been amazing.**

**So, yeah, the demigods are one step closer to the Doors, and it's almost time for the book to end (*Do not think about this. Do not think about this.*)**

**Anyway… please ignore that bit of reminiscing. Onto Chapter 38!**

**Disclaimer: I do not *sigh* own HoO. If I did, wouldn't I be working on the real House of Hades right now?**

Chapter XXXVIII Hazel

For a second after she noticed the Doors and the giant's shadow, Hazel was blinded.

Only after blinking away the spots did she realise that Gration was standing right in front of a mass of blazing green torches. Hazel reckoned she would be better off looking straight at the sun. All she could see right now was Gration's silhouette, and her eyes still burned. A few seconds later, Gration moved out of the glow slightly, and Hazel got her first good look at him. Her jaw dropped.

Hazel had seen giants. She had seen countless monsters, heck, even Gaia herself asleep. But Gration was in a totally different league – like, out-of-crazy-weird-Ephialtes-and-Otis-the-ballerin a-league.

For starters, he was tall – like the other giants. His hair was bright blue – like Disney's Hercules movie's Hades. The camp had watched that once and had almost died from laughter. Like, the mortals really thought her father had blue flaming hair?

Except this guy actually _did_ have blue hair. It was braided in a French plait down his back – and tied up with a golden band. His skin glowed faintly with sparkles of gold and silver, which made some sense since he was the bane of Diana – Artemis. He was wearing a hunter's tunic – a dark green Ancient Greek _chiton_, belted around the waist with a blue sash. Gration was holding what looked like a handheld version of Leo's ballistae, Camp Jupiter's scorpions and a giant bow all mashed together, and Hazel instinctively knew that he would be able to use it, very, very effectively. The giant was wearing sandals. Overall, Gration looked like an average hunter who was living in Ancient times, except, of course, for the fact that he was over thirty feet tall. Yeah. Just a mistake that could be made by anyone.

Gration was standing only a few feet away from the Doors, which were radiating waves of death as strongly as ever. The temptation to look at them was almost overwhelming, as was the feeling of dizziness. Would she even see Percy and Annabeth in there? Were they even still moving? Hazel knew they were alive, but still, being alive wasn't much good if they couldn't move.

"Admiring the Doors, Hazel Levesque?" boomed the giant. "They are beautiful, are they not? Only, too bad you will never see them closed."

Hazel started, having not thought of the possibility that she would be singled out. Luckily, Frank came to the rescue.

"Are you Gration?"

The giant threw his head back and roared with laughter, the sound somehow dispelling Hazel's nausea, but replacing it with fear. "Am I Gration? What a question. You are the first in aeons to ask me that!"

"You've been stuck in Tartarus for aeons," pointed out Piper. "So of course Frank would be the first to ask you that in aeons."

Gration looked down at her. "A daughter of Aphrodite, with charmspeak? You have no idea how much I laughed when I heard your _Seven_ involved a daughter of Aphrodite. Children of the Big Three, yes. Ares, yes. Hephaestus, yes. Athena, yes. But _Aphrodite_! Ha! You seem to be an interesting one, though. Different from your clothes-obsessed siblings, hmm?"

Piper gritted her teeth. "Shut up, you overgrown baby with overconfidence the size of the Olympus."

Amazingly, the giant shut up. It seemed Piper's charmspeak _did_ work on giants, even hunter giants. Hazel thanked the gods for that.

"So, er, when are you going to try destroy W.C?" asked Leo. _W.C_?

Apparently the giant was confused as well. "W.C? Why would I, a giant, bother myself with destroying bathrooms?"

Leo realised what he'd said and blushed. "I meant Western Civilisation. It's a handful, so I shortened it down."

Hazel frowned. They already knew Gaia's plan of destroying everything on August 1st. So why was Leo asking again? Unless he was stalling for time, maybe. But out of all abbreviations, he had to pick the one that meant bathrooms?

Gration scowled. "I can see why Gaia does not want you as a sacrifice, idiot boy. Shortening Western Civilisation to bathrooms? No wonder. She wants the son of Poseidon and the daughter of Athena, you know, since they destroyed Kronos, but any pair of half-bloods would do. Except you. The reason is quite clear to me now."

Leo made a look. "But you always need Leo!"

Hazel agreed a little with that statement. It was Leo, after all, who had melted the eidolons, and gotten her and Frank out of the mess. Frank seemed to be thinking along the same lines.

Hazel looked around and started. Since when had they appeared? They looked vaguely wolf-shaped, but she couldn't see much of them due to the fact that they were all right beside or in front of a torch, preventing her from looking. Jason had evidently noted the same, because he frowned.

"Ah, you've noticed my pets. Nice, don't you think? Considering the wolf preys on animals, ah, _dear_ to Artemis. And, of course, today they have permission to attack _you_."

The wolves instantly leaped out of the shadows and attacked; Hazel swiftly drew her sword to retaliate. To her surprise, the blade passed straight through the wolf, and she had to sidestep to avoid being bitten.

"They're some kind of werewolf!" yelled Piper. "Silver, Hazel!"

_Silver_ – Hazel sent out her senses, looking for silver. It shouldn't be hard – she was in her father's shrine, and she had seen the traps in the first rooms that contained varieties of silver. It had to be there – _there!_

A spire of silver exploded out of the ground in front of Hazel, impaling a wolf running at her. Hazel recoiled as the jagged spire ripped through the wolf and left it hanging, speared through the side.

As soon as the first wolf was speared through, the others shrank backwards. Hazel sighed in relief. They backed into a circle, each of them watching the wolves warily.

Gration looked mildly impressed. "Interesting. Maybe you, daughter of Aphrodite, is not such a weakling. And you, daughter of Pluto – the spire is a nice touch."

Piper glared. "I'm flattered," she snapped. "Maybe that will teach you to not underestimate children of Aphrodite."

"Hmm? What was that? In any case, it's not important. And the wolves aren't werewolves, Piper. Good guess, though. They're just wolves that can't be hurt. But anyways… _my_ job is to capture two of you, a boy and a girl. In case they don't make it out. Gaia can't say at the moment, so we need backups. As for the rest of you… well, you'll die anyway, since there's no godly help in sight. May as well." Gration sighed, as if killing demigods was the last thing on his mind, and lifted the ballistae-scorpion-crossbow combination.

They all scattered as the first bolt was released. It blasted a smoking, one-foot wide hole in the ground. The wolves growled and leapt forward.

Piper shot some kind of meat casserole over their heads, as far away as possible. Hazel realised a second later it was probably venison. _Dear_, huh. The wolves apparently liked it, though, because they were converging on the meat.

The second bolt almost got her by surprise. It created a crater only a foot away from her. Hazel quickly started moving again, keeping a wary eye out for the wolves, but they seemed to be focused on the deer meat.

Gration growled and released four bolts at once. Hazel didn't see how that was possible, but she didn't stick around to find out. She sprinted away as a bolt thudded into the ground next to her, ducking behind a statue to get a better view without being a target.

Coach Hedge seemed to be bashing away at the giant's foot, but there was no visible effect. Jason and Piper were both preoccupied with keeping the wolves out of business. Leo and Nico were both trying to stay out of range. Percy and Annabeth weren't appearing at all, but Hazel reckoned it was probably safer in the exit levels of Tartarus right now than to be in this place. The Doors were wide open, still radiating death. Hazel could almost feel Thanatos' presence, waiting for a soul.

At least the wolves seemed to be out of action. The venison casseroles seemed to be enough for now. The giant also seemed to have exhausted his supply of bolts. Hazel decided it was safe enough to go out.

Leo and Nico seemed to have the same ideas, because they moved out from their improvised shelters. Gration did not look very happy about the fact that he had no bolts left. Or maybe he wasn't happy about the wolf thing…

Leo took something out from his tool belt when Gration wasn't looking. It looked like a vial filled with green liquid – Greek fire. He tinkered with it silently before lobbing the vial into the air.

Hazel could only watch in frozen astonishment as the vial sailed into the air –

- and landed on the giant's belt.

The Greek firebomb exploded with tremendous force, sending a shockwave rippling through the air. Hazel was hurled backwards by the blast, smashing into a wall. It hurt.

When the smoke cleared and Hazel's ears stopped ringing, she saw that Gration had a giant hole in his side and was bleeding golden ichor. But even as she looked, it was fading. _Giant immortality_, she thought bitterly.

Gration looked more angry than hurt. "You will pay for that, demigod!" he roared. "I take back what I said about you being an idiot. You will be the first to die!"

"Great, well, in case you haven't noticed, I don't plan on dying anytime soon. Get used to that idea, lady," retorted Leo.

Hazel could visibly see Gration beginning to explode. "YOU WILL BE THE FIRST TO DIE, HERE, TODAY!" he roared.

"I think we're at an impasse," announced Leo. "You can't accept the fact that I'm not going to die. Dude, get used to this fact. Leo is not going to die. Repeat after me. Leo is not going to die."

"YOU WILL DIE!" boomed the giant. "You cannot kill me, but I can kill you! So I will kill you!"

"Why can't I kill you?" demanded Leo.

"Because, demigod, you have no divine help in sight!"

"Then obviously you need to get your eyes tested, Gration. What am I, _karpoi_?" a new voice said.

Hazel jumped and spun towards the source of the voice, her hopes rising. Leaning casually next to the bunch of torches and dressed like Gration, except in white clothing, and with a golden bow in his hand, was the god that had treated them to a terrible haiku… Apollo.

**And there we have it, folks! Finished! **

**I hope you liked the ending. I know it was a bit like MoA and Bacchus, but I figured Apollo would be kind of stylish but casual entrance, and surprise would be the best way to do that. **

**Since the 4****th**** of July was yesterday, here's a trivia question related to it. The people who get it correct will be rewarded with BLUE COOKIES!**

_**What was the finale of the fireworks supposed to be in The Lightning Thief?**_

**Happy Answering! (And Reviewing – please REVIEW)**

**(*wow, this chapter is officially 2068 words… A/N included. Wow.)**


	39. Chapter 39: Hazel

**Hi guys! I'm back! You may now bask in my glorious presence!**

**(Ha, ha, ha)**

**Anyway, just to say a thank you to the people who reviewed: Neptune's daughter, ilovereadingandwriting13, and Obsessivebookdiva. As well as everyone else who has ever reviewed. Your support means the world to me.**

**Also, the cookie of the day goes to: NEPTUNE'S DAUGHTER, for correctly answering my question for the 4****th**** of July fireworks, TLT. Here you go – (::)! I haven't figured out a way to make it blue yet, though…**

**Disclaimer: I do not own HoO. If I did, I wouldn't be writing this fic, I would be reading HoH :P**

Chapter XLIX Hazel

Hazel didn't think it was more possible to be surprised than she was right now. Sure, their entire team had been hoping for divine help to aid them, and Nico had done the 'allow-gods-to-enter' thing, but still, Hazel hadn't really expected Apollo out of all the gods. Especially not in the kind of attire he was wearing right now. Hazel knew Apollo was one of the Twin Archers and everything, but she hadn't really thought that Apollo would ever wear anything so, well, Greek.

Hazel wasn't the only one surprised. Frank looked amazed, Leo had an 'I-must-not-ask-for-haikus' face on, Jason and Piper both looked astonished, Coach Hedge had an 'about-time' face on, and Nico simply looked shocked.

Out of all of them, though, Hazel had to say Gration won the prize for being most stunned. The expression on his face was nothing short of hilarious. Hazel would have laughed if the situation she was in right now hadn't been so serious.

"Apollo? H-How?" the giant demanded. "It's impossible!"

Apollo just gave the giant an easy smile. "It's quite possible, of course. Artemis was quite willing to stand in for me when I mentioned you were here. You know she hates you ever since… well, _that_ incident."

What incident?

Gration scowled. "_That_ incident was her fault and hers alone."

Apollo shrugged. "I don't actually give a damn about that incident any more. That's her choice. I'm here to kill you. Simple, right?"

Gration glared at him before firing half a dozen bolts. Hazel had no idea where that had come from. Then she noticed that crossbow bolts were forming by themselves in the holding section – the magazine or whatever it was called, she bet Leo would know – and cursed. If his projectiles could reform, they were in trouble.

To Hazel's surprise, instead of dodging, Apollo raised his own bow and fired six arrows, one after the other. Each arrow sliced through a bolt, leaving a mass of half-bolts splintered on the ground. Gration's eyes flashed with rage.

"Hey ugly!" Leo suddenly shouted. "Did you like my present? I've got another one for you!"

Hazel cursed under her breath. What was Leo doing? Getting the attention of a distracted thirty-foot-tall angry giant was bound to be dangerous.

Gration turned in surprise – and got another fire bomb to the face. Hazel knew the giant immortality would make Gration perfect when the smoke cleared. She had no idea what Leo thought he was doing.

_Sweetheart, he's causing a distraction. Like what I asked everyone else to do. How else do you think a demigod and a god will be able to surprise him?_

Hazel jumped in shock. Someone had spoken inside her head! She turned, slowly, to look at Apollo, who was watching her with an innocent smile on his face.

A second later, a fully grown ten-ton elephant plowed through the smoke on her right. Hazel vaguely heard Gration's scream of pain before Frank rolled out of the smoke. "Keep up the smoke, Leo!" he yelled.

"Yes sir!" came the distant sounding reply. A few seconds later, a lightning bolt smashed through the roof and straight into Gration.

The good news: Gration was still disorientated.

The bad news: The roof had been the only thing holding up an enormous column of earth far above. And now that there was a giant hole in it, the earth was sinking.

Hazel quickly employed her abilities to stop the earth from crushing the room. This room had to stay intact for a while longer. Until the Doors were closed. Until Percy and Annabeth came out. It took a lot of her energy and concentration, but the earth stabilised a little. Hazel _couldn't_ afford to lose this fight. The earth had to stabilise. It had to stay where it was and not bury the room.

It helped that the earth around them was rich in metals. Hazel sent out her senses, forcing the metals to stretch and connect with each other. She made them link into a kind of metal net to support the earth and prevent it from crushing the place into dust. Hazel knew that Gaia could, if she wanted to, overcome Hazel and bury the shrine. Except then Gaia wouldn't have two demigods for sacrifice for her rising, as well as losing a son of hers. Hazel had come to the conclusion a long time ago that Gaia was fiercely protective of her children, the Titans and the Giants. Gaia wouldn't crush this room if she wanted to be awake.

After a lot of effort, and a lot of smoke, the earth was stable enough for her to release her control. It didn't collapse.

Now onto the bigger problem.

Gration was still somewhere in the denseness of the smoke. And until he died, the demigods wouldn't be able to either close the Doors or continue their journey.

_Hey, dearest. What do you say to helping get rid of this giant?_

Hazel jumped again. She wished Apollo wouldn't do that. _What do you have planned_? she asked.

_That's for you to decide, sugar_.

She could feel Apollo leaving her mind, and she wanted to yell at him. _You to decide_? What did that mean?

Another cloud of smoke blossomed, keeping up the smoke veil that blocked Gration from seeing. There was a faint _click-clack_ sound. Frank charged through it again. There was a distant scream of pain.

Strangely, though, Hazel lost her panic. It was as if seeing the new smoke cloud had blocked her sense of flight. Hazel was still afraid, but she wasn't terrified out of her wits anymore. She was controlling the fear.

_I can summon riches_, thought Hazel. _Apollo's arrows are golden. That means I can control them a little. I can direct them. And add things onto them._

Add things on to the arrows. That was it.

Hazel searched again, ignoring the web of metal she had made to hold up the earth. There was still plenty of it in the shrine.

Tentatively, she sent Apollo her idea. The reply that came back was, _Nicely done, sugar. You ready_?

Ready, Hazel thought.

A shaft of gold pierced the smoke, streaking inward. Hazel latched her senses onto it. She called on her surroundings, her father's domain, to help her.

Hazel could feel precious stones forming themselves on the golden arrow as it streaked through the smoke.

Another arrow spiralled through the haze. Hazel forced gemstone shards to form on that one as well.

There were another two screams of pain. This time, they were much, much louder.

The smoke began vanishing. Hazel could make out a hazy shape through it. It was falling onto the ground. Was it Gration?

By the time the smoke had completely cleared, Gration was gone. There was only a big pile of monster dust left on the ground.

Hazel was glad to see that everyone else was okay. Leo had a few minor scratches, Jason looked slightly tired from all the lightning he released. Piper was clutching her dagger and Frank seemed a little drained from turning into an elephant and back so many times. Nico looked tired as well. Coach Hedge just looked plain happy about being able to smash things with his club. But it was done. Gration was gone. They could continue their quest. Thanks to –

"I'll be going, then," said Apollo from behind them. "You know what to do."

Jason hesitated for a second before he said, "Before you go, sir – what are things like on Olympus at the moment? Is it likely that we'd get help?"

Apollo thought about it for a second. "If you all impress Father enough, then perhaps. Athena will be happy to aid you – but, of course, you must make sure her daughter survives. As for that – Tartarus is beyond the domain of any god, so I cannot help you there. I assume you know where to go after this."

"Mount Olympus," said Piper. "The first one. The real mountain."

Apollo nodded. "Good luck, heroes." He started flickering slightly.

They all turned away as a blinding flash of gold erupted from behind them. When they turned again, Apollo was gone.

The Doors of Death were still wide open.

As one, they all rushed to the Doors. "Percy!" yelled Nico. "Annabeth! Are you there?"

They weren't.

Piper had a look of disappointment on her face. "What now?"

"We wait," answered Hazel. "Until they arrive."

"They're not dead yet," agreed Nico. "We'll wait here until they arrive. They have to."

"Let's just hope they haven't been captured," said Jason. "And no monsters form."

Frank nodded. "They_ have_ to arrive soon. How long can we stay here for?" They all turned to Leo.

He shrugged. "We can stay for as long as we need to. We've still got plenty of time until August. Ish. From here to Olympus – at top speed, we can get there in a day. So we can stay here until July 31st."

"Except we're lacking food, water, blankets, yeah," pointed out Coach Hedge. "But otherwise? Totally. Let's camp, baby!"

Nico rolled his eyes. "Let's take turns to watch the Doors, Coach. I'll take first watch. Tell you if I see anything. You guys, get some rest. Maybe you'll find them in your dreams."

Hazel glanced around. "Sure looks cozy," she said, picking a spot near the wall and some torches. Frank came over next to her.

"Good luck, guys. Have fun at Morpheus'." Hazel didn't hear anything else. She was falling asleep.

**Crappy ending, I know. Sue me. But I just didn't want Percy and Annabeth to return just yet. I know, I'm evil! They'll be in the next chapter. I promise. At least in dream-mode. I'll swear on the Styx. *thunders outside*.**

**Please review! Reviews help me write faster! All you have to do is type something in the white box and click submit. Simple, right? So PLEASE REVIEW!**

**(As for the Artemis-Gration incident, I made that up. So don't try search for it on Google. What? I'm allowed to tweak things a little! - besides, there really might have been an incident they all forgot to write about)**


	40. Chapter 40: Jason

**I would like to thank the following people for their reviews – **

**ilovereadingandwriting13**

**Neptune's daughter**

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**elliefs**

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**Those meant so much to me. THANK YOU!**

**P.S. DS-SoA ~ I'll try make the fight scenes better. The Reyna chapters will probably have some more fights, so I'll see if I can improve them to more than just a couple of moves.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own HoO. RR does. O.O**

Chapter XL Jason

In his dreams, Jason saw himself.

He saw himself fighting a battle that had been won mere minutes – or was it hours? – ago, the smoke bombs, lightning, elephants, the ceiling. He saw the shafts of gold streaking through the smoke.

Jason saw himself afterwards, slumped against the walls dozing, Piper resting on his shoulder. He saw the other members of the Seven in various resting positions, all turned towards the still-open Doors of Death.

His dreams swirled, propelling him out and above. He saw Reyna and the legion, fighting for their lives among a horde of monsters. He saw spots of orange and purple appear in dark roiling masses of enemies.

Jason saw Festus blowing fire at the monsters without command, a pale-grey glow around the Argo. He saw a woman with brown hair and intense grey eyes shrink the Athena Parthenos before it vanished, replaced by an owl burned into the floor. The owl glowed with the same color as the protection around the Argo.

Jason visited Thalia, fighting with the Hunters in a circle, back-to-back, shooting silver arrows into the monsters. He saw Clarisse and her siblings slashing and hacking. He saw the children of Athena fighting with a strength Jason hadn't realised they had.

Jason fell through a pair of doors into endless darkness; saw Percy and Annabeth fighting their way towards them. A ghostly silver-white substance pulled at them, as if it was trying to ensnare and capture them. He saw Annabeth stumble, Percy look back.

He floated above the Doors, looking down. Only then did Jason realise how much longer Percy and Annabeth still had to go. He prayed to the gods they would make it. They had to. Somehow.

Jason's dreams rotated. He saw himself as a toddler, with Thalia, playing in the park. He saw himself eating the stapler. It was a weird experience, but he watched all the same. Then he saw the Wolf House and Camp Jupiter, the first time he flew, the first time he summoned lightning. The quest to save Juno.

Jason felt his memories settle firmly back into place. He had gotten them returned again months ago, but there were still some gaps missing. They filled themselves in now. Jason couldn't believe how good it felt, to remember everything he should have remembered, completely remembered.

For a while, Jason drifted in nothingness, simply feeling a surge of contentedness.

Then abruptly he was yanked out of his dream-heaven. Jason found himself in front of three old ladies. None of them looked at him. They were knitting socks. The colour that caught Jason's eye was a startlingly purple one, but threaded through with an electric blue. It was being woven into a pattern with a vivid pink string. At one point, it left the pattern and joined another one, a green and grey pattern.

With a start, Jason realised there were four interconnected patterns. One was purple-blue and pink. Another was green and grey. A third one was gold and dark red. The fourth one was a fiery pattern linked with a gold, silver and red one. They were all separate patterns, but they overlapped every once in a while. At some stages they would separate, but they would all end up being drawn back together.

Jason's brain scanned for mythological information. Three old ladies, knitting strange patterns.

_Parcae_.

He was looking at the Fates!

But the Fates paid him no attention – they continued spinning and threading and snipping. He looked closer at the patterns.

If the purple one threaded with blue was his, then the pink had to be Piper. The green looked vaguely like the colour of Percy's eyes, so that meant… Percy and Annabeth! And the others had to be Frank and Hazel, and Leo and… who? Who was gold and silver and red? Jason didn't know anybody that was gold and silver and red.

At least, if those strings were theirs', they would survive the war. Somehow, someway. There was no way the threads could be interwoven that many times if Jason and the others didn't survive. It wouldn't fit.

Jason was flashed into a scene he had never been in before. It showed a ruined Mount Olympus, the Three Fates, a body wrapped in green and silver, gods and demigods. Jason was watching through Percy's eyes.

Jason watched as the Fates gathered up the green-and-silver wrapped body. One of them was holding up an electric-blue thread. "_It is done_," she said. Jason realised that the thread must have been for the guy in the shroud.

Suddenly Jason saw Percy's life flash through his eyes. A teenager. A middle-aged man. And a coffin, lowered into a grave, with a gravestone on top. That must have been the power of the Fates. They had let Percy see his life, if only briefly.

So Percy would live until old age. That was a relief to Jason. It meant he would survive Tartarus. But what about Annabeth? The Fates had not said anything about her. Would she survive? And couldn't the Fates change lives? What if they changed Percy's so that it all ended up wrong and Percy didn't live until old age? Jason couldn't help those thoughts running through his head.

He was suddenly back with the Fates again. None of them glanced in his direction – they continued knitting.

His and Piper's thread – it must be Piper's – suddenly split in two. One of the Fates added a new life thread to the place where they split. This one was bright magenta. It spiralled away until Jason couldn't see anymore.

Jason scanned his thread. At some places it was fragmented – there was a place where it had broken altogether and there was a hasty knot to fix it. That must have been him seeing Hera's divine form. He had technically died then.

At another place, further on, it was hanging on by a single fibre. It thickened out again after a long time. Jason didn't like that. Still, there was the possibility that it wasn't his thread at all. Jason rather disliked that idea. Even if he was going to literally hang on to life by a thread, it would mean he knew his future to some degree. Something would happen, he would get in a really bad condition, and then he would get better. At least he would get better.

One of the Fates – one that was knitting – looked up, pausing for a second. She looked straight at him.

"_Curiosity killed the cat, Jason Grace_."

He started awake, looking around frantically. He was half-expecting himself to drop dead suddenly. Jason glanced at the Doors.

Leo was watching them, looking desperate for news.

"They're alive, Leo." Jason's voice sounded strange, even to his ears. "They're still alive."

Leo turned. "I know. I saw them in my dream. But they…" He trailed off, before he looked back at the Doors. "I can't see anything in there. There's no light whatsoever. How will they find their way out? And if I use my fire, what if they get burned by accident? Or if the fire attracts monsters and they all come here. We'd be in trouble then. But how will they get out if they can't see anything?" Leo shook his head. "And in my dream, there was some kind of silver thing chasing them. What if they get caught? Or – or -," Leo looked desperate.

"They're alive," Jason said. "That's what matters. And Leo, they'll survive Tartarus. I saw the Fates spinning their threads in my dream. They'll stay alive through all this."

Leo relaxed slightly. "Except if they're stuck in Tartarus forever. Then they'd live, but we wouldn't know."

"No, Leo. I saw the patterns all being interlinked. We'll survive all this, I promise. I saw our threads being all connected with each other. Unless we all fall into Tartarus, we'll meet again. That means they survive."

Leo sighed. "I damn well hope you're right, Sparky." He looked undecided for a moment, before he lobbed a fireball into the darkness.

Instantly, Tartarus lit up. Red flames leaped and shot sparks around the exit level of Tartarus.

Jason saw a river of white and two shifting dots moving towards them.

**AAAND That's it! Sorry, my friends, you will have to wait until the next chapter to see what's going to happen! And then you'll have to wait for the Reyna chapters to be over to see what happens then! (I know, I'm SO evil. Mwahahaha! ~ couldn't resist.) So yeah, good luck and PLEASE REVIEW!**


	41. Chapter 41: Jason

**A VERY BIG THANK YOU TO:**

**Neptune's daughter**

**elliefs**

**Obsessivebookdiva**

**Carebear12350**

**Erik the Viking**

**Doctor Severus – Son of Athena**

**You all get free cookies! (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::)**

**Disclaimer: I do not own HoO *sniff* *sniff* *dabs away tears***

Chapter XLI Jason

Jason shook Piper and Hazel awake while Leo did the same to Nico, Coach Hedge and Frank. They all started awake with the same words – "Huh?"

Jason gestured to the Doors, not trusting his voice to speak. Frank walked over and craned his head to see.

"What is it? What can you see?" asked Hazel. "Is it them?"

Frank backed away with a stunned look on his face. "I think you should see for yourself, Hazel," he said awkwardly. "It's…"

He trailed off and Hazel leaned forward. Her eyes widened. "Oh my gods, please please please let them get out safely."

Piper crouched down next and started. "Oh gods, they're so close! They have to make it."

Nico took his spot and gasped softly. "Percy? Annabeth? Can you hear me?" he called.

"Nico! Is that you?" A faint, high voice answered. Jason realised it didn't sound like either of them, but the voice was still unmistakeably Percy's. Jason felt a stab of worry. What had happened to his friend down there that had made Percy like this?

The glowing threads of white seemed to be catching up, trying to pull Percy and Annabeth back into the pit. They were evading it, but for how much longer? If there was another monster attack, would they be able to fight it off and avoid the white thing? _Don't jinx it, don't jinx it_, thought Jason desperately. _Don't jinx it_.

A hellhound leaped out of the darkness. Jason swore. "Watch out!"

Percy dragged Annabeth aside and the hound crashed straight into the white threads. It howled and disintegrated into gold dust that began shifting back to Tartarus. Whatever that white stuff was, it was deadly.

Jason didn't think it was possible to feel any less powerless than waking up with no memory. He had been proven wrong when he'd been rescuing Hera and his assets had been his girlfriend-who-wasn't-really-his-girlfriend-back-t hen, Leo who had thought he could defeat armies with breath mints, and a whiny imprisoned goddess. He'd been proven wrong again when Percy and Annabeth fell into Tartarus. And it appeared the Fates wanted to prove him wrong _again_. Now he was pretty sure there was no chance of feeling more useless than watching his friends stuck in the King of Pits avoiding white stuff that could destroy a hellhound by touching it.

A Cyclops lumbered out of the shadows. Instantly, Jason could tell that neither Percy nor Annabeth would be able to avoid its club. But he yelled anyway. "Your left!"

Percy glanced at his left and his eyes widened. Jason found himself seeing in slow motion.

The Cyclops, swinging its club.

Percy, barely managing to duck.

Annabeth, already too low for the swing to make contact.

The club swinging backwards much lower than when it had swung forwards.

A millisecond before making contact.

The shock and alarm on Percy and Annabeth's faces.

And a ball of fire arcing through the air, slamming into the Cyclops' arm.

_Huh?_

Jason turned to look at Leo as the Cyclops roared in pain. Leo had an intense look on his face. His hand was on fire.

"Come on!" screamed Piper. "Move!"

The charmspeak washed over Jason. If he didn't move, something bad would happen. He had to move…

Jason snapped out of it and glanced back inside Tartarus. Percy and Annabeth were moving again, dragging each other out of club range. Jason felt himself tense. If the Cyclops regained his senses in time, if Leo missed the second shot… Jason could feel Tartarus putting a block on his lightning abilities. He wouldn't be able to call down lightning there, and Tartarus was so far below it would be almost impossible anyway. Jason guessed he would still electrocute things on touch, but he wouldn't be able to use ranged lightning strikes. He reckoned the only reason Percy was still able to use his water abilities was because of the moisture in the air that had to exist even in Tartarus.

The Cyclops staggered back up. His right arm was missing and there was a gaping hole where it had been. But even in that condition, Jason knew it was dangerous. A Cyclops' fist smashing into someone was just as bad as a club. And he knew that from first-hand experience.

"We need to get rid of that thing," hissed Hazel. "And – OH MY GODS, PERCY, ANNABETH, SWERVE!"

The white stuff had almost wrapped itself around Annabeth's ankle. She yanked her foot up and the white threads missed her. Percy and Annabeth started moving faster. The threads were catching up.

The only good thing was that the threads had ensnared the Cyclops. He screamed once before dissolving into dust. The dust flowed back towards the pit.

Percy and Annabeth picked up their pace. So did the white strands. They were getting closer, please, please, please make it, thought Jason.

He suddenly realised exactly how vulnerable they were in this position. They were all looking through the Doors, and nobody was watching their back. If someone came from behind…

He pulled away from the Doors and glanced around. There was nobody there. Still, Jason didn't feel too comforted. He decided to take watch just in case some monster came along.

From time to time, he would hear gasps or cries as one of them warned Percy or Annabeth. The strange thing was, the voices were muffled. It was as if someone had blocked them. That was probably the power of the Doors. He poked his head in just to make sure. Yup. The voices sounded strangely muffled.

Frank pulled away from the Doors, as did Hazel. "I can't watch. What if something happens?" he asked.

Hazel nodded. "Yeah. They have to make it. They have to…" She started chanting a mantra under her breath. Jason heard every word. _They'll make it they'll make it they'll make it they'll make it_…

The others slowly backed away from the Doors. "Come on, Annabeth," he heard Nico say. "You're going to make it, you have to. Percy, please keep going…"

Jason glanced inside again. They were nearly there! Gods, they were almost at the Doors. Jason started thinking about who would close the Doors. _The guardians deceived and gateway closed_. The guardians had been deceived. But the prophecy hadn't said anything at all about who would close the 'gateway'. Assuming the gateway meant the Doors of Death, which Jason was pretty sure it did, since the prophecy had stated, _At the Doors speaks charm the dove_ for the previous line. So…

Abruptly Nico stuck out his hand into the inky darkness and pulled. Leo did the same.

There was a wild screaming sound, like a banshee if they existed, and Jason felt a force tugging him in the direction of the pit. It was so strong, he had to grip the frame tightly to avoid being sucked in.

When Jason finished blinking the spots out of his eyes, his eyes made out a haggard bundle on the floor. He blinked again and again, just to make sure that he was seeing correctly. He was.

The people lying in front of him were thinner, and had shadows under their eyes, but they were definitely the same people.

Percy and Annabeth were back.

**TADA! **

**Next chapter: Reyna POV. I'll try put some good fight scenes in. And in about three more chapters, you'll get to find out what happens to Percabeth! Mwahahaha! I'm so evil! (*grins wickedly*) **

**Please review!**


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